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LIBRAROrCONGRESS. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



THIR T V- ONE ORA TIONS 

DELIVERED A T HAMIL TON 

II 

COLLEGE FROM 1864 TO 



1895 UPON THE PRIZE 
FOUNDATION ESTAB- 
LISHED BY FRANKLIN 
HARVEY HEAD, A. M. 



COLLECTED AND EDITED BY 



MELVIN GILBERT DODGE, A.M. 

Librarian of Hamilton College . C\'iaaJIov\ Vl/i 

l\ ' -1 







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(\C^'L\ 



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G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



NEW YORK LONDON 

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 

SCIjc liiticktrbotlur Hress 
i8q6 






COFVRIGHT, 1896 
BY 

MELVIN GILBERT DODGE 






Ibc IKnicljerbochci- ipicss, IRcw IRocbeHc, m. 1!?. 



NOTE. 

The present volume is the second of the series to 
contain the prize orations delivered at Hamilton 
College. The fact that some of the prize orations 
can not be found argues strongly for the publication 
of the rest, thus placing them in permanent form. 
One only of the Head-Prize orations is lacking, that 
by Luther A. Ostrander of '65. The single copy 
which is known to have been in existence was lost 
in the Chicago fire. 

I wish to thank Professor Root for his generous 
contribution to the volume. To him, a member of 
the same class with Mr. Head, and a professor for 
many years in Hamilton College, the founding and 
growth of the prize have not been without interest. 

M. G. D. 





CONTENTS. 



Note iii 

Introduction ....... ix 

Professor Oreti Root, D.D., L.H.D. 
Hamilton as a Constitutional Statesman . i 

Franklin H. Head, '^6. 
The Character and Statesmanship of Hamil- 
ton II 

Willard Peck, '64. 
Hamilton as an Expounder of the Constitu- 
tion ........ 18 

Hannibal Smith, '66. 
The Intellectual Rank of Hamilton among 

HIS Contemporaries ..... 25 

Amory H. Bradford, '67. 
Hamilton as a Political Prophet ... 32 

"yohn D. Henderson, '68. 
The Relations of Hamilton and Burr . . 39 

Charles H. Searle, '6g. 
Our Political Indebtedness to Hamilton . 46 < 

Thomas H. Abbott, '70. 



vi Contc7its. 

PAGE 

Hamilton Compared with his European Con- 
temporaries 53 

'yames L. Bennett, 'yi. 
The Position of Hamilton in American His- 
tory 59 

y^. Henry Shepherd, '72. 
The Career and Character of Hamilton . 66 

Oliver E. Branch, '/j. 
Alexander Hamilton AND Thomas Jefferson . 73 

George \V. Knox, '7^. 
The French Revolution and the Political 

Doctrines of Hamilton .... 79 

William H. De Witt, 'y^- 
Alexander Hamilton and Salmon P. Chase . 85 

Harvard P. Eells, 'yd. 
Hamilton and Seward as Political Leaders . 90 

Henry W. Cockerill, 'yj. 
Alexander Hamilton and Louis Adolphe 

Thiers ........ 95 

Carlos H. Stone, 'yS. 
The Death of Hamilton loi 

Charles E. De Witt, '7p. 
The Political Doctrines of Hamilton in the 

Light of Recent American History . .107 

Philip A. Laing, '80. 
Hamilton and the Tariff Question . -1^3 

Harmon J^. Bliss, '81. 
Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Disraeli, 118 

Herbert H. Parsons, '82. 
The Political Services of Hamilton and 

Webster -125 

Edwin B. Root, '8j. 



Contents. vii 

PACK 

The Debt of our Government to Washington 

AND Hamilton ...... 130 

Edward M. Barber, '84. 
Hamilton and the Presidential Election of 

1800 ........ 136 

Edmund J. Wager, '83. 
The Military Services of Hamilton . . 142 

William H. Hotchkiss, '86. 
The Verdict of Experience on Hamilton's 

Constitutional Theories .... 147 

John G. Peck, '87. 
Hamilton and the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1787 ...... 153 

Edmund R. Wilcox, '88. 
The Influence of the "Federalist" . . 159 

James D. Rogers, '8g. 
Hamilton, Webster, Seward . . . .164 

Walstein Root, 'go. 
The Principles that Distinguish Hamilton 
* and Jefferson as Statesmen . . .170 

George M. Weaver, 'gi. 
Alexander Hamilton and John Adams . . 175 

John M . Curran, 'g2. 
Hamilton as a Lawyer ..... 180 

Daniel W. E. Burke, 'gj. 
Hamilton and the Code of Honor . . 185 

Leroy F. Ostrander, 'g4. 
Hamilton's Theory of the United States 

Senate ........ 190 

John B. Seymour, 'gj. 



INTRODUCTION. 



'Wm ^ 



HESE orations are the result of com- 
petition for a prize endowed by the 
Hon. Franklin H. Head of Chicago. 
No name from the rolls of our strug- 
gle for independence and our binding 
together as a nation awakens more 
intense interest or opens wider fields 
for consideration than that of Hamilton. From the 
first appearance of the youthful student, to the tragic 
hour on the heights of Weehawken, the story has 
the attraction of romance, and in it can be found 
the kindling of influences potent not only for then 
but for all time. 

In the very beginning of his plan to found an 
institution of learning, Samuel Kirkland sought the 
counsel of Hamilton and received his approval. 
Hamilton was one of the first trustees, and in 
recognition of his encouragement the institution 
received his name. It is fitting that this College 
should call special attention to Alexander Hamilton. 
Soon after the establishment of prizes for English 
essays, the Faculty announced as a subject for the 
Senior class, " Alexander Hamilton as a Constitu- 



X 



httrodiiction. 



tional Statesman." The prize on this subject was 
awarded in a vigorous competition to Franklin H. 
Head of the Class of 1856, who evinced in College 
the marked ability he has shown so fully since. 

In 1863, the Senior prizes for essays having been 
withdrawn, Mr. Head established the prize called by 
his name, designating that the subject for this Prize 
Oration year by year should have reference to the 
character and career of Alexander Hamilton. The 
first Head-Prize was awarded to Willard Peck of the 
Class of 1864, then as now of Hudson, N. Y. Since 
that year the prize has been awarded annually; the 
successful orations form the body of this volume. 

The writers were young men, varying in age at 
the date of writing from nineteen to twenty-five 
years. They magnify in some respects the work and 
influence of Hamilton ; but readers will find less 
tendency in this direction than would be expected 
of young writers. 

It is believed that these efforts grouped about the 
life of Hamilton will be of interest to many and will 
at least show how constant Hamilton College is to 
the memory of the great leader. 

Oren Root. 

Clinton, N. Y. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON AS A CONSTITU- 
TIONAL STATESMAN. 

SUCCESSFUL PRIZE ESSAY BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD, '56. 




|HE aspirations of the most ambitious 
can reach to no more lofty position 
than that of the true statesman. He 
who has fashioned an institution in 
which is made practical some great 
idea, and who has thus identified him- 
self with the interest of a perpetual 
order of men, has exercised the noblest attribute of 
human reason, and is to be classed among the 
world's benefactors. 

In speaking of the constitutional statesman, we 
mean him who acts in the inauguration of great 
principles or rules of action in government ; or him 
who expounds and sustains by argument those 
principles when inaugurated. Such an one needs a 



2 Alexander Hamilton 

familiar acquaintance with history ; an original, in- 
ventive, powerful mind, and undoubted patriotism. 
He stands to make and judge upon the foundations 
of government. The highest order of intellect is 
necessary. The man must be a philosopher. 

Alexander Hamilton met these requirements. He 
brought to the service of the state a thorough 
knowledge of its wants, together with a mind 
fraught with all the governmental learning of the 
past. His turn of thought was neither purely specu- 
lative nor rigidly practical, but rather one combining 
the excellencies of both. He originated, if exigen- 
cies demanded, new views and new principles, yet 
tested them ever by the severest logic. He ensured 
success to his projects by their adaptation to the 
universal nature of man. He was familiar both 
with the rules of right reason and their right 
application. 

His mind was singularly comprehensive, grasping 
at once the broadest underlying principles and the 
minutest practical details. 

To this intellect, versatile as it was gigantic, he 
added a temper fitted for patient investigation, and 
habits of indefatigable industry, rarely accompany- 
ing such scope of genius. 

Hamilton's labors as a framer of our present 
governmental policy commenced years before the 
Convention of 1787. While a member of the " Old 
Congress" he appreciated the evils of the existing 
system, and with characteristic foresight saw and 
suggested the remedy. He made plain the neces- 
sity of a stable national government and indicated 



As a Constitutional Statesman. 3 

the only means by which it could be instituted. 
His ideas, inculcated with earnestness and based 
upon incontrovertible " first truths," lived in the 
minds of his auditors and were manifested in their 
acts. 

In his extensive correspondence too, with the 
sages and patriots of the Revolution, he was ever 
pointing out the necessity for a radical change' in 
the polity of the nation, and thus contributing in no 
inconsiderable degree to raise the tone of public 
opinion to a level with his own. As a marked in- 
stance of this latter method of inculcating his views 
we may cite his letter to James Duane (1780), in 
which is not only a clear and convincing demonstra- 
tion of the necessity of a modification of the existing 
government and of the Articles of Confederation 
then awaiting the ratification of the States, but also 
a foreshadowing of all the essential changes which 
should constitute this modification. So exactly is 
his plan in accordance with the one subsequently 
adopted by the framers of the Constitution, as to 
fully warrant the assertion that Hamilton was, to a 
greater extent than any other man, the author and 
father of that imperishable instrument. 

After a full and fair trial, the Articles of Confed- 
eration were adjudged an insufficient basis for gov- 
ernmental action. The Convention of 1787 was 
assembled. 

Among the eminent men who acted as members 
of this Convention none were, by the nature of their 
previous studies and experience, better fitted for the 
momentous duties required than Hamilton. His 



4 Alexander Hamilton 

service as secretary and aide-de-camp to Washing- 
ton had given him an intimate knowledge of the 
real state and requirements of the country. He 
was too, wholly free from State interest and sec- 
tional prejudices. A foreigner, looking upon the 
State boundaries as mere political divisions which 
might at any time vanish, he embraced a continent 
within the scope of his mental vision, and legislated 
in view of the happiness and welfare of a nation. 

The course of Hamilton, while a member of the 
Convention, has been the theme, alternately, of ex- 
travagant praise and bitter censure. He has been 
charged with entertaining views hostile to our insti- 
tutions, and of favoring the establishment of a 
monarchy ; statements unquestionably at variance 
with fact. That in his theoretical convictions he 
leaned strongly toward a monarchy as it exists 
under the English Constitution is not denied, but 
he saw and avowed its utter want of adaptation to 
the people of the United States, and pressed his 
convictions no farther than to seek to incorporate 
into the American system, the vigor and stability of 
the English Constitution. 

Hamilton's ideal of a government was one which 
he was conscious must, from the frailty of human 
nature, ever be unattainable ; a government which 
should unite the strength and permanency of a 
monarchy with the most perfect security to liberty. 
As near an approximation as possible to this ideal 
was what he labored to effect. In accordance with 
this view, the fundamental idea which underlies 
nearly all his propositions is, that the Union about 



As a Constihitional Statesman. 5 

to be formed should be a " Coercive Union," one 
the government of which should act directly on the 
people as individuals, without the intervention of 
State legislation. During the Confederation the 
laws of Congress had the force merely of recommen- 
dations ; he would have the ofificers of the nation 
fully empowered to execute its laws. 

Although from the incompleteness of the reported 
proceedings of the Convention we cannot assign 
with precision the parts due to the exertions of 
Hamilton, yet the modifications of the first sub- 
mitted plans in accordance with his previously 
avowed opinions; the close resemblance of the per- 
fected system to his own plan ; and most of all, the 
embodiment in it of the great and most important 
idea, its action upon the people independent of 
the State governments, bear witness to his efficient 
participation in the constructive labors of the 
Convention. 

The Constitution, having been matured, was sub- 
mitted to the people for their decision. Here Ham- 
ilton appears in a new character, an expounder. 
Rarely does it happen that the same man can per- 
form creditably the functions of the legislator and 
of the jurist. Not often is the original, creative, 
practical mind of the one united with the discrimi- 
nating judgment and keen analytical powers of the 
other. But in the mind of Hamilton were combined 
these seldom associated powers. 

In the expounding of the Constitution, a new 
and wholly untried field for the display of judicial 
learning, he was without a rival. The " Federalist " 



6 Alexander Hamilton 

at once laid the foundation, and well-nigh completed 
the superstructure of American constitutional law. 
Subsequent laborers upon this structure have done 
little else than more fully to carry out and elaborate 
the views of Hamilton. In this luminous and elo- 
quent commentary on our institutions, more than in 
any other production of his pen, are displayed his 
familiarity with the principles of all government ; 
his power of perceiving the weak points in govern- 
mental theories, and his intimate knowledge of all 
the political philosophy of the foregone times. His 
share in this work alone would entitle him to the 
position of the first and soundest expositor of our 
Constitution. 

His labors in this department of statesmanship, 
however, ended not with the publication of this 
work. Called into the cabinet of the President at a 
period when constitutional questions were necessa- 
rily of frequent occurrence, his opinions were con- 
stantly sought by Washington, and almost without 
exception formed the rule of action for that exalted 
patriot. To assert this is no derogation from the 
wisdom and sound judgment of Washington, who 
ever had the magnanimity, inseparable from true 
greatness, to select and embrace counsels worthy of 
attention and respect. 

Those of his cabinet papers which discuss the 
points, then much controverted, of the constitution- 
ality of a national bank and of a tariff for the pro- 
tection of manufactures are completely exhaustive 
of those subjects. Arguing from the position that 
the grant of a power was by implication the grant 



Asa Constitutional Statesman. 7 

of means to render it effective, his reasoning is con- 
clusive. From that time the power of Congress to 
institute a bank or tariff has scarcely been ques- 
tioned ; the expediency of their establishment alone 
has engaged the attention of our legislators. 

To animate and put in operation the newly formed 
government was a task scarcely less difficult thairits 
construction. An error in its early working might 
have converted the very system of checks and bal- 
ances intended to secure its permanency into the 
most fatal weapons for its destruction. At this 
crisis, had not Hamilton been the adviser of Wash- 
ington, the infant Republic might never have matured 
into a manly nation. Hamilton defined the proper 
sphere of the national government. He prescribed 
the bounds to the authority of its different depart- 
ments. He illustrated the spirit which should guide 
in the interpretation of its laws. To his exertions 
our nation owes no small part of the blessings which 
have followed the harmonious working of her Con- 
stitution. 

Of the correctness of Hamilton's views time and 
experience have brought abundant proof. The dan- 
ger to the Union has ever been rather from State 
than from federal usurpation. The deficiencies of 
the Constitution are precisely those which he foresaw 
and against which he labored. The most important 
amendments to that instrument were originally his 
suggestions. Not in the least exaggerated is the 
philosophic Guizot's estimate of his genius, " Hamil- 
ton must be classed among the men who have best 
known the vital principles and fundamental condi- 



8 Alexander Hamilton 

tions of a government worthy of its mission and of 
its name." 

Hamilton cared little for personal popularity. 
Looking upon men merely as passive instruments 
he adjusted to them his modes of policy, not to suit 
their momentary caprices, but by following theories, 
of the soundness of which he was assured by his un- 
erring perception of what was practicable and ex- 
pedient. He considered that while the sensibilities 
would prompt men to deeds noble and heroic, they 
were yet an unsafe dependence for the stated opera- 
tions of a government. Entertaining this view of 
the value to be attached to the popular judgment he 
spoke to his countrymen what he believed to be the 
truth concerning themselves, even at the risk of his 
popularity and influence. To do this required moral 
courage of the highest order; a courage which a 
great statesman must have ; a courage which, ex- 
erted at a later period, would have saved to his 
country a valuable life, and left his own character 
free from what must now be regarded as its deepest 
stain. 

Hamilton unquestionably underrated the capacity 
of the American people for self-government. He 
had too low an opinion of the wisdom and stability 
of our democracy. Yet even here he drew conclu- 
sions logically correct from premises in history and 
experience. There was not then an existing repub- 
lic worthy the name. The crushed and dismem- 
bered commonwealths of the past proclaimed with 
united voice a republican form of government to be 
at once the most difficult and the most dangerous. 



As a Constitutional Statesman. g 

Our own Confederacy, its government nerveless, its 
people desponding, its States in collision, confirmed 
the same great truth. The State governments, un- 
regulated by a stable national head, presented melan- 
choly spectacles of weakness and inefificiency. How 
then could Hamilton be warranted in arguing that 
the American people were to inaugurate a new era 
in governmental history? How could he infer the 
existence of those moral and educational restraints 
upon the passions of which there had been as yet 
almost no manifestation ? 

To speak of Hamilton as a soldier, an orator, a 
financier, or an administrative statesman comes not 
within the purview of our subject. The fact how- 
ever that in each of these positions he was distin- 
guished illustrates still farther the vastness of his 
intellect, the inexhaustible fertility of its resources, 
and the all-embracing nature of his genius, 

In the light of these facts and reflections we may 
estimate the character of Hamilton as a constitu- 
tional statesman. He possessed an intellect that 
mastered constitutions, governments, and men. His 
theories were based on first principles, and herein is 
his excellence as a constitutional statesman. Gov- 
ernment was to him a science; not an art. He 
sought for principles, not in precedents, but in the 
nature of things. He used history and experience, 
not as rulers, but as guides. Most men would have 
been satisfied to equal the past. Hamilton, rising 
with the spirit of a new world, bearing its burden, 
grasped at and attained a new order of government. 
Only such men as he were able to form a Constitu- 



10 Alexander Hamilton. 

tion worthy and fit for America. He was the master 
spirit of 1787. 

The whole scope of his mind was original and 
adapted to the times. He labored to acquire for 
his country glory, as he himself said, by the steady, 
uniform, unshaken security of constitutional free- 
dom. Zealously and well did he toil for this in the 
Philadelphia Convention ; in the New York assem- 
bly for ratification ; in his arduous labors in the ad- 
ministration of Washington. His expositions of the 
Constitution are unrivaled. He was the thinker of 
the age ; the man to whom, more than any other, 
the American people are indebted for the solidity 
and perpetuity of their institutions. 






THE CHARACTER AND STATESMANSHIP OF 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

BY WILLARD PECK, '64. 




lOME had her household gods in her 
illustrious dead. 

By the glory of their ancestors the 
hearts of her sons were fired with that 
valor and patriotism which crowned 
their city queen of the world. Amer- 
ica too has her Penates in the orators 
that initiated, in the warriors that achieved, in the 
statesmen that secured, the success of the Revolu- 
tion. The sterling principle, the exalted patriotism, 
and the intellectual strength of that period are most 
brilliantly exemplified in the character and states- 
manship of Alexander Hamilton. 

Hamilton inherited from his parents their national 
characteristics. From his father he received the 
mental acumen, the sterling sense, and the high 
principle of the Scotchman ; from his mother, the 
warm impulses, the refined sensibilities, and the 
chivalric honor of the Huguenot. Hamilton was 
thus by nature the affectionate husband, the faithful 
friend, the true gentleman, and the zealous patriot. 



1 2 The Character and Statesmanship of 

The distinguishing feature of Hamilton's charac- 
ter was intellectual power. The higher faculties of 
his mind reigned supreme. His feelings were as 
warm and his fancy as bright as the sun of his na- 
tive Indies, but they never dazzled his reason or 
blinded his judgment. His mind was capable of 
keen analysis and broad generalization. Unflinch- 
ing courage, unflagging energy, and untiring indus- 
try were also his. An indomitable will, wielding 
superior mental faculties, gave to his character the 
attribute of executive power. Hamilton's life thus 
became a series of splendid intellectual achieve- 
ments. As the secretary of Washington he was the 
brain of the Revolution ; as a writer and an orator 
he moulded public opinion ; and as a statesman he 
solved the problems of finance and government. 

Nor was Hamilton's character devoid of moral 
greatness. As a citizen, a lawyer, and a soldier, 
high principle ever controlled his conduct. Regard- 
less of his own interests he ever espoused the cause 
of truth and justice and devoted himself with a 
spirit of self-sacrifice to his country. 

In accepting the challenge of Burr to fight the 
duel in which he lost his life, Hamilton indeed dis- 
obeyed his convictions of right. He thought that 
to decline would impugn his courage and sully his 
honor. He erred ; but it was the fault of a chivalric 
nature, a fault expiated in his death. Character 
finds its true expression in life. In the boy in busi- 
ness at fourteen, in the collegian swaying by his 
eloquence the people of New York, in the young 
captain in the vanguard of American freemen, in 



Alexander Hamilton. 13 

the confidential adviser of Washington, in the keen 
lawyer, the shrewd politician, the able editor, the com- 
prehensive statesman, the true patriot, and the noble 
gentleman, Hamilton presents a mosaic of human 
character, wonderful in its combinations, striking in 
its contrasts, and grand in its integrity. The char- 
acter of Hamilton moulded his statesmanship. In- 
tellectual, moral, and executive power has stamped 
his work with the impress of utility, patriotism, and 
truth. Let us examine his political philosophy and 
then estimate. 

In the Convention of "^'] Hamilton advocated the 
strongest form of central republican government. 
History had pronounced pure democracy a failure. 
The American Revolution had discovered the weak- 
ness of confederation. A republic upon the con- 
fines of monarchy was the ideal of Hamilton. A 
distinguishing feature of Hamilton's theory was the 
appointment of State of^cers and the revision of 
State laws by the federal executive ; and by this 
virtual consolidation of the States to create a cen- 
tral power which should " unite, pervade, and invig- 
orate the whole country." Sectional prejudice may 
become stronger than national pride. The natural 
supports of government are the interests and neces- 
sities of the citizens. A centralized government 
would have pledged these principles to the main- 
tenance of national faith, honor, and integrity. Se- 
cession would have been not only unconstitutional 
but impossible. 

Another distinguishing feature of Hamilton's 
theory was in the organization of the Senate, He 



1 4 The Character and Statesmanship of 

would have made it a select legislative body whose 
members should be chosen for life by the landed 
proprietors of the nation. The people are not in- 
fallible. Vox popiili is not vox Dei. A reckless 
democracy is the most terrible of despotisms. Freed 
by its tenure of ofifice from the influence of popular 
passion, a senate thus constituted would have been 
a great conservative element in the government. 

Still another feature of Hamilton's theory was to 
strengthen the executive. Upon the administration 
depends the efficiency of every system. The no- 
blest government ever devised by philosophy, with- 
out ability to maintain its authority, is contemptible. 
The liberty and safety of the citizens are the true 
objects of government. Hamilton would have 
clothed the executive with strength commensurate 
with these objects. He would have created an ex- 
ecutive, single in person, permanent in tenure, and 
independent in power. Such in general are Hamil- 
ton's peculiar views as a constitutional statesman. 
Strength was his ideal; to found a permanent re- 
public, his object. 

On account of these views Hamilton has been re- 
proached as a monarchist. The charge is unwarrant- 
able. He declared that a republic only could be 
founded in America. Hamilton was the intelligent 
patriot. He sought to establish the Republic upon 
the basis of law. The government of England was 
his model, not to copy but to imitate. 

Hamilton was a national statesman. Free from 
local prejudice his care was not for the interest of 
the States but of the nation. Hamilton was a prac- 



Alexander Hamilton. 15 

tical statesman. He recognized facts and regarded 
man not as he ought to be but as he was. Ham- 
ilton was a true conservative statesman. Like 
Hampden and Lafayette he opposed all oppression, 
whether of the monarch or the mob. Hamilton was 
the philosophic statesman. History was the oracle 
from which he drew his political inspiration. He 
analyzed human action and made its motives the 
basis of his science of government. Hamilton was 
a comprehensive statesman. He never proposed 
measures but always advocated principles. In his 
political philosophy he studied the past and em- 
braced the future. The work for the state and the 
spirit which he imparts to its institutions are the 
crowning glory of the statesman. 

The first work of Hamilton was the education of 
public opinion to the adoption of the Constitution. 
By pen and voice he stimulates the national thought. 
During the Revolution he discovered to the leading 
minds of the day the imbecility of the old Confeder- 
ation and demonstrated the necessity of a stronger 
government. At the conclusion of the war, through 
the press and in the forum, Hamilton urged upon 
the people the consideration of the mighty question 
of government ; and by continuous effort succeeded 
in assembling the States in constitutional conven- 
tion. The composition of that body indicated the 
temper of the people. Many members were pledged 
to resist any change ; others were absorbed in the 
interests of their respective States. Hamilton pre- 
sented the testimony of history, developed estab- 
lished truths, pictured to their minds his own ideal 



1 6 The Character and Statesmanship of 

of unity and power, and by the most forcible argu- 
ment and most eloquent appeal wrought the senti- 
ment of the Convention to the standard of the 
present Constitution. 

Hamilton now labored for its adoption. With 
Madison and Jay he issued the " Federalist," and, 
as its ablest expounder, explained its character and 
secured its acceptance by the people. But the work 
of Hamilton was not yet complete. The govern- 
ment must be put into successful operation, Wash- 
ington appreciated the eminent talents of Hamilton 
and appointed him Secretary of the Treasury. This 
was the most responsible ofifice under the new gov- 
ernment. During the Revolution a heavy debt had 
been incurred. Business was paralyzed and the nation 
was upon the brink of bankruptcy. To restore the 
public credit was a herculean task few could have 
accomplished. But Hamilton developed the hidden 
resources of the people, rescued the nation from the 
dishonor of repudiation, and laid broad and deep th'e 
foundations upon which has since been built the 
grand structure of our financial prosperity. In the 
conception, adoption, and early administration of 
the Constitution, the statesmanship of Alexander 
Hamilton is thus everywhere conspicuous. 

The wisdom of Hamilton's philosophy has vindi- 
cated itself. Under the influence which his spirit 
has imparted to its institutions, the country has for 
eighty-one years advanced in a career of unparalleled 
prosperity. To-day too in the hour of national trial, 
the vigor, which it was at once the object and frui- 
tion of Hamilton's statesmanship to infuse into the 



Alexander Hamilton. 



17 



Constitution, is the element of strength which will 
enable it to survive the attacks of a giant rebellion 
and to perpetuate the national honor, integrity, and 
power. 





ALEXANDER HAMILTON AS AN EXPOUNDER 
OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

BY HANNIBAL SMITH, '66. 




Igg^^MJEHE American theory declares the end 
of government to be the protection of 
the individual in his inherent right to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. It recognizes the people as 
the creative power; they ordain the 
organic law by which their rulers are 
controlled. 

The Constitution is to the government what the 
channel is to the river. If the river neither over- 
flows nor breaks through its banks, commerce will 
ride upon its bosom, flourishing cities will adorn its 
borders, and prosperity will crown the scene ; but if 
it swells into an irresistible torrent and overflows its 
banks, ruined cities and desolation will sadden the 
prospect. 

So if the government moves within the limits fixed 
by the Constitution, liberty will be secure; but if it 
disregards those limits, anarchy or despotism will 
result. 



Expottnder of i/ie ConstitMtion. 19 

A manifest violation of the Constitution is not 
probable; but an unwarrantable interpretation may 
be equally subversive. 

The danger of an erroneous exposition of the 
American Constitution is great ; for it is not based 
upon a simple theory, but upon a compound system. 
It is partly national and partly federal. If what is 
federal be disregarded, the tendency will be to total 
consolidation ; if what is national be overlooked, 
the Constitution will be transformed into a league 
between independent sovereignties and secession 
will erect a constitutional protection for its destruc- 
tive work. 

Hamilton stands first in time and preeminent in 
ability among the expounders of our national Con- 
stitution. The time and circumstances in which he 
expounded it, give to his exposition the importance 
and authority even of a judicial interpretation. 

The Constitution did not entirely fulfil his condi- 
tions of a perfect one, because he preferred one in 
which every department of the government depends 
directly upon the people. He desired a constitu- 
tion conformable to the national theory only. 

All who favored the establishment of an energetic 
national government, advocated the ratification of 
the Constitution as the best that could be obtained. 
All who favored a federal league in which the sov- 
ereignty of each State would remain intact, opposed 
its adoption. Hamilton expounded the Constitu- 
tion as an advocate for its ratification ; hence, his 
bias for what is national in theory was counter- 
balanced by his policy as an advocate. Consequently, 



20 Alexander Hamilton as an 

in his exposition every provision of the Constitution 
is exhibited in its true h'ght and carried to its logical 
conclusion. 

Hamilton expounded the Constitution to be the 
fundamental law. This, together with his theory of 
the nature of the relation which the Constitution 
created between the people of the several States, is 
the distinguishing principle of his exposition. 

The nature of the relation established by the 
Constitution between the people of the several 
States is, in the light of recent events, of the most 
vital importance. If the Constitution be only a 
league between independent sovereignties, then the 
Southern people who attempted to deface our 
national banner committed no treason ; the States 
may have violated their plighted faith, but their 
citizens would be shielded from punishment under 
the aegis of State nationality. If the American 
people by ratifying the Constitution only acceded to 
a league, our national structure is built upon sand.; 
the strength and renown of American nationality, 
celebrated in every clime, are without solid foun- 
dation. 

Happily for America ! happily for mankind ! 
Hamilton has placed this question beyond dispute. 

Though he deemed it a gross heresy to maintain 
that a party to a compact has a right to revoke that 
compact, yet he declared that the possibility of a 
question of this nature proves the necessity of lay- 
ing the foundation of our national government 
deeper than in the mere sanction of delegated 
authority. He proclaimed that the fabric of Ameri- 



E xpoiinder of the CoiistitiUion. 2 1 

can empire rests on the solid basis of tlie consent of 
the people, and that the streams of national power 
flow immediately from that pure original fountain 
of all legitimate authority. 

Hamilton maintained that the Constitution, once 
established, was irrevocable ; and that the govern- 
ment could be overthrown by successful revolution 
only. 

According to his exposition the establishment of 
the general government created American nationali- 
ty ; he, who before was a citizen of New York only, 
became an American citizen. 

The argument by which Hamilton reached this 
conclusion is convincing. It is based upon an 
acknowledged truth. His syllogism is complete. 
The people are the original source of all legitimate 
authority. The powers requisite to constitute 
sovereignty are delegated by the people. The 
national and paramount sovereignty they delegated 
to the general government. Local sovereignty, when 
not inconsistent with the national, they delegated 
to the State governments. Consequently, the Con- 
stitution endows the national government with 
absolute sovereignty over the objects the American 
people confided to its care. 

Can it be doubted that Hamilton expounded this 
fundamental principle of the Constitution correctly ? 

The structure and the operations of the govern- 
ment itself prove that he was correct ; for, if the 
national government be not sovereign over the 
objects entrusted to it, the States must be. If the 
States be sovereign, then our national system is a 



2 2 Alexander Hanu'iton as an 

mere confederation ; but it is not a confederation 
proper. The distinctive characteristics of a confed- 
erate system are the equality of the sovereignties 
of which it is composed, and the execution of the 
confederate enactments, not upon individuals, but 
upon the States in their corporate capacity. But in 
the American system the States have not an equal 
voice in the national councils, and the laws of the 
national government are executed, not upon States, 
but upon individuals. 

The friends and the opponents of the Constitu- 
tion, before its adoption, equally declare that Hamil- 
ton was correct. Patrick Henry opposed the 
ratification of the Constitution, because it would 
abridge the sovereignty of Virginia, and after the 
ratification he maintained that a State is no more to 
the nation than a county to the State. 

Hamilton demonstrated clearly the necessity of 
the provisions of the Constitution whereby the 
government is empowered to regulate in the last 
resort the election of its own ofificers. 

The right of the government to regulate elections 
is essential to self-preservation ; for if the election of 
its own officers depend upon preestablished bodies, 
these bodies have only to refuse to act to disrupt 
the government. All governments dependent upon 
preexisting organizations are intrinsically weak. 
Hamilton atribtuted this organic weakness to the 
mode only of electing Senators ; but owing to the 
peculiar organization of the Senate, he did not con- 
sider this weakness serious. 

He exhibited great sagacity in showing the neces- 



Expoicnder of the Cojistitution. 23 

sity of the constitutional provisions, which invest 
the government with unHmited means for the accom- 
ph'shment of the objects of its institution. The 
circumstances, he asserted, that endanger the safety 
of a nation are infinite ; therefore, the means at the 
command of the government should be coexten- 
sive with all possible combinations of such circum- 
stances. 

Thus the Constitution as expounded by Hamilton 
not only gives the national government a strong 
soul, but strong organs by which that soul operates. 
Statesmen even of commanding abilities might 
find ample provisions in the Constitution to ensure 
its stability and perpetuity; but Hamilton saw an 
inherent weakness in our complex system. Above 
the horizon of the not distant future, he beheld a 
threatening cloud — the possible encroachment by 
the States upon the national authority. 

Constitutional limitations he did not think strong 
enough to preserve equilibrium between the State 
and national governments. He saw in the history 
of nations the record of violated obligations. He 
knew that the monumental memorial, chiseled by 
Phidias to commemorate the deliverance of Greece, 
became the resting-place of the spirit of jealousy. 

He knew that the Furies of crimination and re- 
crimination swarmed, even in the pass of Thermop- 
ylae ; he knew that jealousy between rival states, 
springing even from such historic spots as these, 
involved in ruin the liberty and independence of 
Greece. 

Hamilton apprehended that the States, because of 



24 Alexander Hamilton. 

their immediate relation to the people, would be 
supported by them in encroaching upon the national 
authority. From this cause he predicted the disrup- 
tion of the Union within thirty years. His prophecy 
has failed ; but let nullification and the Rebellion 
decide whether his apprehensions had any basis. 
He did not foresee the development in the American 
people of an intense spirit of nationality. He did 
not duly appreciate the fact that the present is the 
age of great nations ; and that the glow of patriot- 
ism, springing from the consciousness of belonging 
to one of the great nations, would overcome any 
weakness in our complex system. Our experience 
has proved that Hamilton correctly indicated the 
peculiar strength and peculiar weakness of the 
American system. 

As an expounder of the Constitution he displayed 
a vivid conception of the vital principles and funda- 
mental conditions of a good government, one com- 
bining efficiency with liberty. 

As a writer upon political science European ■ 
critics rank him higher than Aristotle, Burke, or 
Montesquieu. America recognizes his preeminence ; 
and through the fiery ordeal of war has discovered 
that his theory of the Constitution is the only one 
compatible with national liberty and national pros- 
perity. Secession evinces his foresight ; our na- 
tional triumphs were made possible by his wisdom. 

The great facts of American history combine to 
prove him a statesman of unrivaled genius. 



THE INTELLECTUAL RANK OF ALEXANDER 
HAMILTON AMONG HIS CONTEMPORARIES. 

BY AMORY H. BRADFORD, '67. 




11 M ERIC AN art has few works which 
surpass Daniel Huntington's paint- 
ing of "The Republican Court," 
or " Lady Washington's Reception 
Day." Washington is the centre of 
the picture. Around him are seen 
the philosophic head of Jefferson ; 
the stern, strong features of the elder Adams; the 
genial countenance of Madison ; and the clear, 
thoughtful, classical face of Hamilton. Ours it is, 
selecting from that group one of its brightest orna- 
ments, to seek to determine, in the clear light of 
history, his true intellectual rank among his con- 
temporaries. 

The amount and quality of intellectual work which 
a man performs measures his intellectual power. The 
amount and quality of mental labor performed by 
one man compared with that accomplished by 
others, determines his relative intellectual rank. 
By what a mind does accomplish must be deter- 
mined what it may do. 

25 



2 6 TJi c In tellectti al Rank of 

.Alexander Hamilton was nature's favorite. Quick, 
penetrating, active, he had an intuitive knowledge 
of the duties required for any position. He was 
original and creative by nature ; he was thorough 
and exhaustive in research. No subject too pro- 
found ; no problem too intricate for him. The 
beauties of chastened imagery adorned his reason- 
ing; yet it was clear, logical, and convincing. 
Strength and beauty combined and gave to it a 
strange power. He entered, examined, exhausted 
one sphere of thought after another in quick succes- 
sion. He rose higher, delved deeper than other 
men ; grasped firmly sublimer principles of govern- 
ment ; studied, examined, lived with them until they 
became a part of himself. Then he wrote them out 
for the world. To-day the works of Alexander 
Hamilton are more extensive than any ancient or 
modern statesman, Cicero only excepted. And this 
was accomplished, not by a man of leisure, but by 
one who bore the brunt of unequal strife. His po- 
litical philosophy, profound as the world has known, 
was written by the camp-fire's glare in the midnight 
bivouac. The undaunted political leader was the 
dauntless revolutionary soldier. 

Alexander Hamilton was intellectually superior 
to all his American contemporaries. His achieve- 
ments demonstrate it; their acknowledgments es- 
tablish it. He was the most influential framer of 
the Federal Constitution. He conceived its plan 
and matured its form. A great historian of civiliza- 
tion has written, " There is not in the Constitution 
of the United States an element of order, of force, 



Alexander Hamilton. 27 

of duration which Hamilton has not powerfully 
contributed to introduce into it and to cause to 
predominate." Yet Pinckney and Morris were in 
the Convention ; Franklin and Madison were there. 
Now the simple fact that Hamilton was allowed to 
contribute so much to the Constitution of the 
United States' proves that, by common consent, he 
was the leader of the Convention which framed it. 

After the Constitution had been adopted the 
power of the government must be respected ; its 
laws executed. This required means. Whence 
were they to come? When the Constitution was 
framed the example of other nations could be fol- 
lowed. But what model could guide him who was 
to manage the finances of the new-born Republic? 
History was silent. He could not follow. He must 
create. What was the Treasury of the United 
States at that time? A mere figment of the imagi- 
nation. The United States had no money, scarcely 
any credit ; no system for gaining a revenue. The 
national debt was unpaid ; its amount unknown. 
Out of nothing Hamilton provided for past indebt- 
edness and present demands. There was nothing, 
yet under Hamilton's management our financial 
system became almost perfect. Million-handed in- 
dustry started into action. Commerce revived, 
spread her wings over every sea ; an abundant rev- 
enue filled the coffers of the nation. Hope crowded 
away despair. Health and prosperity began to throb 
through the arteries of national life. In the elo- 
quent words of the Constitution's greatest cham- 
pion, " He touched the dead corpse of the Public 



28 The Intellectual Rank of 

Credit and it sprang upon its feet " ; not "with the 
feeble, spasmodic life of a galvanized body, bat the 
life of a strong, graceful, irresistible giant." 

This was confessedly the most difficult office in 
the new government. It was impossible to deter- 
mine by experience for what positions men were 
best adapted. Hence if the appointing powers had 
not considered Hamilton the ablest man in the 
nation, would they, could they as patriots have 
chosen him to perform the most difficult task? 

But, for Alexander Hamilton the matchless po- 
litical essayist, has Fame woven her fairest garlands. 
The " Federalist," the proudest monument of his 
genius, is an embodiment of all that we now revere 
in the science of government. It is a masterpiece 
of political philosophy, the grandest exposition of 
our Constitution ever written. The mighty debates 
of Calhoun and Webster are its acknowledged in- 
feriors. It takes its historic place beside the " Letters 
of Junius," Montesquieu's " Spirit of the Laws," and 
Burke's immortal "Reflections." Is this exaggerated? 
Then Guizot, the most philosophic historian of the 
age, is an exaggerator. He said, " In the applica- 
tion of elementary principles of government to prac- 
tical administration, it is the greatest work known 
tome." Exaggerated! Then Chancellor Kent was 
an exaggerator, for he wrote, " I know not of any 
work on the principles of free government that is to 
be compared in instruction and in intrinsic merit to 
the ' Federalist.' " 

His intellectual superiority over all his American 
contemporaries is perfectly manifest. Who can be 



Alexander Hamilton. 29 

compared with him? The "Sage of Monticello " 
alone. Gratitude has almost apotheosized Thomas 
Jefferson ; gratitude because he prepared the paper 
which declared our independence. But deserved 
gratitude is not a measure of intellectual power. 
Place Jefferson and Hamilton together. The former 
is more literary, more refined, more popular; the 
latter more practical, discerning, and controlling. 
Jefferson could prepare reports requiring the most 
exhaustive research, digest laws, follow the intricate 
mazes of international diplomacy as perhaps no 
other man of his time. But could he have created 
from the barren soil of '89 the beautiful fabric 
of our national credit? He could write the Dec- 
laration ; could he have evolved a constitution ? 
A political writer of undoubted preeminence he 
never did, never could have composed anything 
equal to the statesmanlike arguments of " Pacificus " 
or the irresistible logic of the " Federalist." Yet 
his efforts for liberty were glorious efforts ; his 
patriotism unsullied as the cause he advocated ; his 
splendid fame lasting as the land he loved. Others 
were superior in particular departments. Adams 
was peerless as a Senatorial leader ; Henry, match- 
less in fervid oratory ; Morris, equal perhaps as a 
financier; but in the combination of those powers 
which make the comprehensive, philosophic, and 
practical intellect, Alexander Hamilton stood alone. 
Again, if we imagine him in France, amid the 
splendor of the court of Louis XVI. ; in England, 
when Parliament was an assemblage of giants, would 
his glory wane? With Necker as the representative 



30 The Intellectual Rank of 

of French intellect ; with Burke as the exponent of 
the English mind when England's mental superiority 
was her national glory ; by the side of these we 
place him, and proudly ask again does his glory 
wane ? Necker's task as a financier might have been 
greater ; was it more successfully performed ? Be- 
sides, Necker was great only in the cabinet. As a 
financier, he stands the greatest in French history; 
perhaps in the world's history. But this was all. No 
orator, an inferior writer, a narrow-minded, vacillat- 
ing statesman ; who can believe him intellectually 
equal to the practical legislator, the accomplished 
financier, and the profound political philosopher of 
America? 

No age has produced two greater minds than Alex- 
ander Hamilton and Edmund Burke. To each was 
given a wider combination of powers than to any 
other public men of their time. Was Burke endowed 
with an understanding " penetrating, energetic, com- 
prehensive, and profound"? So was Hamilton. 
Was Burke's fancy " vivid, versatile, all-einbracing "? 
Hamilton's was not less so. Burke was a more ex- 
tensive miscellaneous writer; Hamilton, his equal as 
a political essayist. Burke was a more perfect 
orator and profound philosopher ; Hamilton, a more 
practical thinker and philosophic statesman. In the 
realm of polite letters Burke was an acknowledged 
master. This Hamilton never entered. Burke 
united the profound thought of the philosopher, 
the recondite erudition of the scholar, the clear 
foresight of the statesman, the magnetic power of 
the orator, with the polished culture and classic 



Alexander Hamilton. 31 

elegance of the literary connoisseur. The age de- 
manded greater things of Hamilton. The American 
revolutionist gained a difTerent culture from the 
English scholar. Proudly, then, I claim that the 
greatest American intellect of the eighteenth cen- 
tury was inferior to the greatest British only in the 
broad range of his literary accomplishments. 

Candid comparison and impartial history have 
placed the intellectual rank of Alexander Hamilton 
above all American contemporaries ; above all 
French ; and I sincerely believe above all English 
but one, second only to Edmund Burke. 

Statesman, financier, philosopher ; pride of the bar 
and ornament of the forum ; dauntless in battle as 
stainless in patriotism ; cosavior of his country and 
glory of the nation, stands the name of Hamilton in 
the history of America. Every day his fame grows 
brighter. Experience proves his wisdom and de- 
stroys enmity. The Union united, once more and 
forever, in a glorious brotherhood is the proud 
memorial of his intellectual power. His teachings, 
stretching from the great Revolution to the great 
Rebellion, preserved the Republic. They were incar- 
nated in that army that swept armed treason from 
power ; that moved in a splendid triumphal march 
from western valley to eastern seaboard ; and with 
Grant at its head, and loyalty to right for its motto, 
" bound the nation as it unbound the slave." Years 
may pass before the Muse of history shall open her 
tablets to record a name more enduring than his. 
Centuries may elapse before Providence shall bestow 
upon America another Alexander Hamilton. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON AS A POLmCAL 
PROPHET. 

BY JOHN D. HENDERSON, '68. 




^^"•N passing judgment upon the political 
foresight of any man, we must con- 
sider, not merely the speeches deliv- 
ered in partisan debate, but his entire 
political career; we must ask, what 
were the principles which he pro- 
fessed, what was the effect of the 
measures which he advocated or opposed ? 

Political foresight is a necessary clement of states- 
manship, and deeds prophesy more than words. The 
wise man looks forward to results; the foolish man 
sees only the present. Curtis has said that "Alex- 
ander Hamilton seems to have been born a states- 
man. At the age of twenty-three he had already 
formed well-defined, profound, and comprehensive 
opinions on the situation and wants of the confed- 
erated States. He had wrought for himself a polit- 
ical system far in advance of the conceptions of his 
contemporaries." 

For nearly thirty years Mr. Hamilton was in the 
public service, and before the people as a political 

-^2 



As a Political Prophet. 33 

man. His writings are extensive and voluminous, 
and his opinions are clearly expressed upon all the 
great questions which at that time agitated and di- 
vided the nation. As the original projector and 
earnest advocate of the Constitution, we find him 
the principal author of the " Federalist." As the 
first Secretary of the Treasury, he directed the finan- 
cial afYairs of the government, and placed upon a 
firm basis the credit of the nation. As head, heart, 
and soul of the Federal party, he exerted all his 
influence against the combined power of Thomas 
Jefferson, Aaron Burr, James Madison, and that 
host of intellectual giants of the opposite school 
who flourished during his time, until finally, he 
went down before the resistless current of popular 
sentiment. 

It may be said that Mr. Hamilton had too little 
faith in the capacity of the people for self-govern- 
ment. His real error was his low estimate of public 
opinion. He did not consider that ours had been 
practically a government of the people ever since the 
landing of the Pilgrims upon these shores. " He 
was no theorist ; his powers were eminently prac- 
tical." 

The system of republican government was some- 
thing for which history furnished no precedent. Did 
Hamilton think that the experiment would fail? I 
believe that he expected it would fail. Still he con- 
sidered the new form better than the old. He would 
have given greater power to the central government. 
He would have had a Senate and a President for 
life. He would have merged the States in the 



34 Alexander Hamilton 

nation, but he would have saved the nation. He 
foresaw, what has since been so clearly demonstrated, 
that there was more to be apprehended from the 
resistance of the States to federal power than in 
executive usurpation. 

The Constitution did not meet his views ; he 
thought that there was too little security against fac- 
tions. But Mr. Hamilton's chief merit was in making 
the best of the circumstances by which he was sur- 
rounded. His articles in the "Federalist" furnish 
the most clear, luminous, and comprehensive exposi- 
tion of our system of government that has ever been 
published in America. Every argument of those 
who opposed the Constitution is taken up in detail, 
and refuted. Every department of the proposed 
government is carefully examined, and the practical 
workings of the system are foretold with wonderful 
accuracy. 

It is not possible to suppose that any man of those 
times had a clear conception of the greatness of the 
nation's future. The old Confederation had proved 
a failure, and well might the founders of the new 
government fear for its success. Hamilton himself 
spoke of it as an experiment. He believed that 
crises would arise when it would be necessary to 
strengthen the general government and put an end 
forever to the doctrine of State rights, which was 
then so persistently advocated. 

Of the famous Virginia Resolutions of 1790, he 
said, " It was the first symptom of a spirit which 
must either be killed or it will kill the nation." 
Has not the history of secession, founded upon those 



As a Political Prophet. 35 

very resolutions, proved the correctness of this 
prophecy? 

Although we may not believe that Hamilton's 
plan of a stronger government was wise, still we 
must be convinced that he foresaw the difificulties 
which might arise, and did all in his power to ward 
off the danger. It was well that the first trial of the 
new system was in the hands of its friends. Great 
as was the merit of Washington's administration, 
much in plan, much in execution, must devolve upon 
Hamilton. It was a hard struggle to inaugurate 
Hamilton's financial system, but it was a grand suc- 
cess ; and Washington himself says that " it would 
have been impossible to have foretold the unex- 
ampled prosperity of the country." 

How much of the Farewell Address was the pro- 
duction of Hamilton we cannot say; but of this 
much we are certain, that no inconsiderable portion 
of that famous document owes its origin to the con- 
fidential friend and adviser of the great Virginian. 
Can any one deny that his views are expressed 
throughout the address? The earnest desire that 
everything might become national ; the patriotic 
hope that the bonds of unity and mutual sympathy 
between the States might be strengthened ; the 
prophetic warnings against geographical parties and 
foreign alliances; all these indicate that the hand of 
Hamilton penned the address, the mind of Hamilton 
conceived it. 

It is charged that Mr. Hamilton sympathized with 
England. But he was not a monarchist. It is diffi- 
cult to say what was his opinion of the English 



36 Alexander H ami It on 

government. I think that he expected our govern- 
ment would assimilate to the British form, and that 
our President, although elective, would become 
something like the English king. It is certain that 
he looked with very little favor upon the excesses 
of the French revolutionists; and when our country 
came so near to a war with France in 1799, he 
endeavored to precipitate the event. This policy 
seemed necessary to counteract the s}Mnpathy 
among our people for the French Republic, and the 
desire, which a few years before had been wide- 
spread, for the interference of our government in 
the European wars. Besides, Hamilton was a mili- 
tary man, and when the acts of France became so 
oppressive as to arouse the indignation of the Amer- 
ican people, he foresaw the great preponderance 
which it would give the Federal party to awaken 
the patriotic feeling of the nation, and the oppor- 
tunities it would afford for his own personal glory. 

But Hamilton was not infallible, and as a politi- 
cian he made some great mistakes. His course in 
the election of 1800 tended to divide the Federal 
party. I do not believe that he was sincere when 
he prophesied that the election of Jefferson would 
ruin the nation. If he was, his pamphlet, entitled 
"A Review of the Administration of John Adams," 
shows a sad lack of foresight and a want of tact as 
a political leader. The contest was a close one ; a 
few votes would have turned the scale. Aaron Burr 
saw the divisions among the Federalists ; secured 
Hamilton's pamphlet and published it to the world. 
The Democrats carried the election, and never after 



As a Political Prophet. 37 

was the prestige of the old regime sufficient to 
restore the Federal party to power. 

Another great error of Hamilton's political career 
was his attempt, after the preliminary election, to 
pervert the incorruptible mind of John Jay, in order 
to defeat Mr. Jefferson. Governor Jay refused to call 
an extra session of the legislature to change the law 
in regard to electors, and condemned the movement 
as unworthy the consideration of an honest man. 
After the election, Hamilton's influence in national 
politics began to wane ; but he was still a great man, 
and might possibly have resumed his position in the 
affairs of the nation had not the tragic event at 
Weehawken terminated his brilliant career. 

What then shall we say of Hamilton ? His 
friends have given him unqualified praise. His 
enemies have belied his name. If he had too little 
confidence in the judgment of the people, he was 
ever watchful for their rights and liberty. If he de- 
sired a strong central government, it was that his 
country might have a name and a history. If he 
spoke at times despondingly of the nation's future, 
he always worked to make that future glorious. 

No man has ever held fewer offices within the 
gift of the American people, and at the same time 
exercised a greater influence in the government. 
Some of the measures which he advocated have 
proved of the greatest utility, but he sometimes 
allowed his partisan feelings to overcome his own 
good sense. His life gives evidence of the pro- 
foundest statesmanship ; but the principles he pro- 
fessed were soon condemned by the people. His 



38 



A lexander Hamilton. 



great political foresight no man can deny, but as a 
party leader he made some of the worst blunders in 
the history of politics. His untimely death was a 
severe blow to the nation, and the name of his 
enemy has justly been made synonymous with 
infamy. 

But Hamilton needs no eulogy ; and that famil- 
iar couplet of one of England's greatest poets is 
peculiarly applicable to him : 

" Search ye the land of living men 
Where shall we find his like again ?" 







THE RELATIONS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 
AND AARON BURR. 

BY CHARLES H. SEARLE, '69. 





gJl 


i 


1 



HE period in which Hamilton and Burr 
were contemporaries was perhaps the 
most eventful in American history. 
Beginning with the first resistance to 
British domination, it embraced the 
eight years' struggle, the trials and 
dissensions under the Confederation, 
and the rise and opening career of our consti- 
tutional government. From the respective relations 
of Hamilton and Burr to the events of this period, 
grew up many of their relations to each other. 
These relations began in the army; were continued 
at the bar and in politics ; and terminated in a fatal 
encounter. 

At the first outbreak of war with the mother 
country, Hamilton and Burr quitted their books 
and joined the patriot army. They were both 
young, brave, ardent ; and both ambitious for dis- 
tinction. But in the army they did not compete for 
the rewards of heroism ; nor were the achievements 
of the one weighed against those of the other. 

39 



40 Alexander Hamilton 

Their rivalry was of a peculiar nature. It consisted 
in the impressions they were each making on the 
mind of Washington. This keen and impartial ob- 
server said that both young men possessed pre- 
eminent abilities. But what was more important, in 
Hamilton he saw these abilities consecrated to noble 
aims ; in Burr, to the service of a selfish and unscrupu- 
lous ambition. As the result of these opinions, 
he made Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury in 
1789 ; and ten years later, called him to the second 
office in the army. On the other hand, from motives 
of duty equally well founded, he refused to appoint 
Burr minister to France, 1794 ; and in 1799, pre- 
vented his obtaining a commission in the army. 

When Burr received these disappointments he had 
long regarded Hamilton as his most formidable op- 
ponent. It is not strange, therefore, that he should 
have attributed his repulses, not so much to the dis- 
trust of Washington, as to the hostile agency of his 
rival. This suspicion took the force of actual fact 
and sunk deep into his heart. 

As lawyers, Hamilton and Burr contended more 
than twenty years for the supremacy. In this earn- 
est competition, they each became thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the character and motives of the 
other. This fact gives to their rivalry at the bar its 
chief importance. It was here that Hamilton ac- 
quired that distrust of Burr which gave such intensity 
to his subsequent political opposition. Here, also, 
Burr first felt not only the towering preeminence of 
Hamilton's genius, but the repellent force of his 
antagonism. 



And Aaron Burr. 41 

But the relations of these men first became really 
important and of national interest when they en- 
tered the arena of politics. As prominent members 
of rival parties they were necessarily opposed. 
Hamilton's opposition to Burr, however, rose above 
partisan grounds ; and was peculiar, intense, and 
aggressive. It is important that ue appreciate cor- 
rectly this opposition of Hamilton, the reasons that 
prompted it, its nature, and its results. 

Hamilton opposed Burr, first, because he believed 
him to be a man of restless and unscrupulous am- 
bition. In this opinion he was fortified, not only by 
the observations of a long acquaintance and inter- 
course, but by the assenting judgment of Washing- 
ton. The ascendancy of such a man, he believed, 
should ever be dreaded in a republic. In the con- 
dition of our government and people at that time, 
he found other cause for dreading Burr's political 
elevation. The nation was entering upon a new and 
untried career. It was burdened with debt, beset 
by the dangers of internal dissensions, and exposed 
to jealousy and hatred from abroad. At such a time 
it was supremely important that the officers of gov- 
ernment should not only be men of great abilities, 
but of great virtues. That same patriotic purpose 
that had prompted Hamilton to such untiring efforts 
in adding to the solidity and permanence of the gov- 
ernment, now urged him to guard it against the arts 
of the demagogue. 

But how should lie proceed ? The man whose 
elevation to office he so sincerely dreaded was no 
patient plodder, satisfied with small rewards, but his 



42 Alexander Hamilton 

ambition pointed to the highest positions, and his 
career was ever upward. For Hamilton to reveal 
his opinions of this man's character to the people 
would be to expose his life to the resentment of a 
bold and determined antagonist. On the other 
hand, if he permitted Burr to advance unopposed to 
power, who would protect the government against 
the encroachments of ambition ? Between these two 
dangers circumstances seemed to provide a middle 
course. It happened that Burr, in the most import- 
ant crisis of his career, depended upon the Federal- 
ists for aid. Hamilton's great influence with this 
party made his opposition easy, effective, and appar- 
ently safe. He had only to communicate his dis- 
trust in confidence, and to trusted friends, and the 
effect was immediate and satisfactory. 

The results of these private assaults upon Burr 
are mainly seen in three important elections. 

In 1792, Burr's friends wished to make him gov- 
ernor of New York. If an alliance with the Feder- 
alists could be obtained their success was assured. 
The Federal purpose vacillated. Hamilton, throw- 
ing his influence into the scale, prevented this 
alliance, and thus gave Burr his first great repulse. 

In 1800, Jefferson and Burr had obtained an equal 
number of electoral votes, and the election of Presi- 
dent devolved upon the House of Representatives. 
The moment of final decision Hamilton believed 
would be one of supreme interest to the life of the 
nation. Though the Federalists were all turning to 
Burr, and though Jefferson had ever been his bitterest 
enemy, he yielded neither to partisan aspirations 



And Aaron Burr. 43 

nor to the promptings of enmity, but with a fervid 
earnestness and a convincing logic urged upon his 
friends the necessity of Jefferson's election. When 
the long exciting conflict was over Burr had been 
beaten, and in producing this result no other man 
had contributed so much either of influence or labor 
as Hamilton. 

Four years later the contest is again in New York. 
Burr, having lost prestige with his party, runs as 
independent candidate for governor. The Federal- 
ists, ready to adopt any expedient to regain power, 
rally to his support. But again Hamilton stands in 
the way and utters his earnest remonstrance. He 
denounces every proposition of alliance with such a 
man for any purpose, as futile, dishonorable, and 
dangerous. The party that has so long looked to 
him as its wisest leader wavers and turns back. Once 
more the hopes of Aaron Burr are dashed to the 
ground, and again his most powerful opponent is 
Alexander Hamilton. 

These were no ordinary disappointments. To 
understand their effect upon Burr, we must remem- 
ber that power was the great controlling aim of his 
life. For this he manoeuvred and intrigued. To 
obtain this he was equally ready to prey upon his 
country's weakness and to brave its power. How 
long then would a single human life oppose an ob- 
stacle in his way ? Cool, courageous, and sure in his 
aim, if he could only bring his enemy to face him 
his object was secured. In all his important repulses 
he had felt and recognized Hamilton's agency, yet 
he had found no sufficient cause for a quarrel. But 



44- Alexander Hamilton 

now recent disappointment and present prospects 
made him desperate. To such a temper a pretext 
for a challenge could not long be wanting. Catch- 
ing at the merest glimpse of a private conversation, 
indiscreetly revealed, in which Hamilton had ex- 
pressed distrust of him, he made it the basis of 
demands so extraordinary and insulting as to shut 
up every avenue of peaceable settlement. Earnest- 
ly, patiently, did Hamilton seek to avoid an encoun- 
ter, but against these humiliating exactions his 
proud nature rebelled. And with the dignity of a 
soldier he accepted the dread alternative. 

On a beautiful morning in July, 1804, upon a wild 
and secluded spot on the Hudson, Hamilton and 
Burr confronted each other for the deadly conflict. 
They were sustained by a purpose deliberate and 
steadfast ; but a purpose, how different. Hatred 
and murder were in Burr's heart ; in Hamilton's, 
mere}' and charit)'. Burr had come thither to re- 
move a powerful enemy, and open the way to 
power ; Hamilton, to purchase at the risk of his 
life the ability to be in the future useful to his 
countr}'. For a moment they stood there in the 
bright, peaceful morning, full of life and hope and 
promise ; on the next Hamilton fell in the swoon 
of death, and his destroyer, with the burden of his 
guilty and fatal triumph, hurried away. 

Thus sadly terminated the relations of Hamilton 
and Burr. Amid the sobs of the nation whose 
thought and action he had done so much 
to shape, the fallen statesman was borne to his 
grave; cut down in the very midday of his use- 



And A ar 071 Bur 7^ 



45 



fulness, he left an unfinished career, grand in its 
promise ; and in its possibilities almost limitless. 
Sorrowing for his fate, the country awoke to a 
new and truer appreciation of his services. Praise, 
hitherto silent, took voice when he was gone, and 
his fame shot up the sky, resplendent like a star. 

Very different, but not less fatal, were the effects 
of the duel upon Burr. Like a resistless torrent, 
popular condemnation burst upon him, bearing him 
farther and farther from power, to new excesses and 
greater shame. 

From that fatal field he wandered forth " a fugi- 
tive, a vagabond among his kind." For thirty 
restless, weary years, he dragged out a profitless 
existence, witnessing every day to the bitter end 
something to remind him of his own disgrace and 
the fadeless'glory of Hamilton. 




OUR POLITICAL INDEBTEDNESS TO ALEX- 
ANDER HAMILTON. 

BY THOMAS H. ABBOTT, '70. 




HE 5th of August, 1788, was a gala 
day in the city of New York. Her 
people had assembled to celebrate 
their State's adoption of the Consti- 
tution ; and to honor their greatest 
statesman. Anticipating the result 
of history, they represented him as, 
next to Washington, most worthy of popular 
esteem. It is our purpose to glance at our nation's 
history; and from it show our political indebted- 
ness to Alexander Hamilton. An early business 
training, and an acquaintance with the principles of 
political economy, well fitted him for the life of a 
financier. He had already the title, " Founder of 
the Public Credit," when he was chosen to the most 
important position in Washington's cabinet. He 
was expected to restore public credit, create a reve- 
nue, reanimate industry, and provide for the finan- 
cial future of the country. His first measure was to 
declare that the nation's honor demanded the pay- 

46 



Alexander Hamilton. 47 

ment of the public debt. To accomplish this, he 
proposed successively a funding system, the assump- 
tion of State debts, and a national bank. The coun- 
try responded to the slightest touch of so great a 
master. " Abundant streams of revenue " welled 
up from the internal reservoir of national resources. 
Government securities touched par, and rose to a 
premium, bearing with them the credit of the 
country. 

Augustus Caesar boasted that he had found Rome 
of brick, and left it marble; Hamilton did more. 
He found a currency of paper, and made it gold. 
He saw trade and commerce stagnant, and stirred 
up their waters to unwonted purity. He looked 
upon a country bankrupt, and it became prosperous. 

It is not for past prosperity only, that we are in- 
debted to Hamilton. To-day, with a credit and 
prosperity the wonder of Europe ; with a large 
assumption of State debts, we are reaping the ad- 
vantages of the funding system. National banks, 
with the aid they have afforded the country, still 
promote industry ; and wherever the stars and 
stripes float in unsullied purity, the American peo- 
ple reecho the doctrine of Hamilton : No com- 
promise of the nation's honor ; no repudiation. 

Our greatest debt is to Hamilton the statesman. 
Here, too, we find him qualified for his position. 
He had received a liberal education ; was well read 
in the principles of law ; and had studied with spe- 
cial care the political history of all nations. Before 
his entrance into political life he had learned, from 
experience as a soldier, the truths taught by Greece, 



48 OiLv Political Indebtedness to 

by Rome, and by England. Lack of form in the 
general government had ever been the defect of the 
early confederations. From the Declaration of In- 
dependence, until the adoption of the Constitution, 
the colonies had been thirteen independent States, 
with no common arbiter. They were held together 
by external pressure, rather than inherent force. 
At the best, they were only war governments ; and 
the peace of '83 had left State obligations para- 
mount. With this monster of State rights, Hamil- 
ton's life was a continual struggle. He was too 
thorough a student of history to doubt for a mo- 
ment the failure of any government that did not ac- 
knowledge a supreme head. He knew that the cen- 
trifugal force of State governments must be held in 
check by the centripetal force of national government. 
As author of the " Continentalist," and as member 
of the Annapolis and Philadelphia conventions, he 
urged the adoption of these views, until they were 
engrafted into the Constitution. While taking a less 
active part in the Constitutional Convention than 
many others, Hamilton contended stoutly for a 
strong central government ; and was the author of 
the system of suffrage that remained for so many 
years. Of his labors in the Convention, Guizot 
says, " There is not an element of order, strength, 
and duration in the Constitution, which he did not 
powerfully contribute to place there." The framing 
of the Constitution was but half the work ; it must 
be adopted by the States. Here it is that the 
choicest laurels have been woven for Hamilton. 
He has been called " the chief framer of the Con- 



Alexander Hamilton. 49 

stitution"; far more was he its great advocate 
before the people. The chief contributor to the 
" FederaHst," that work will always remain his great 
monument. Eighty years have seen it without an 
equal as a commentary on the Constitution. 

It was the lever resting on the fulcrum of the 
people's common sense, that moved the States, one 
by one, to their position in the Union. Above 
everything else, it was the one thing that secured 
the adoption of the Constitution. From the " Fed- 
eralist " sprang constitutional law ; and the majesty 
and beauty of the edifice bear witness to the wisdom 
of its founder. Afterwards, in the convention of 
New York, Hamilton emphasized with his voice the 
teachings of his pen ; and to him we are indebted 
for the eleventh-hour entrance of this State into the 
Union. Such is Hamilton's record as a statesman ; 
it is the unbalanced page of our political indebted- 
ness to him. 

What do we of to-day owe Hamilton ? Were his 
principles mere stepping-stones, that have been 
pushed aside in our progress in the nineteenth 
century ? 

The war of 18 12 was the first great strain upon the 
new Constitution ; and it proved that a strong cen- 
tral government was no less fitted for war than for 
peace. The former government had likewise coped 
successfully with a foreign foe ; would the new gov- 
ernment prove their superior in domestic dissensions ? 
This was the issue of '32. The nullification acts of 
South Carolina sprang from the long buried New 
Jersey plan ; what had defeated it in '87, defeated it 



50 Our Political Indebtedness to 

again half a century afterwards. Andrew Jackson 
certainly had little sympathy with the Federalists ; 
yet his proclamation was what ? An embodiment 
of the principles of Alexander Hamilton. Thus was 
the country proved to be strong from within. Nearly 
thirty years later State rights fired upon United 
States rights. In itself it was a little thing; yet the 
loyal North flew to arms. Those who looked on 
the surface said it was the attack on Sumter that 
armed the nation. And so it was ; but beneath this 
surface was the influence of Federalist teachings, 
derived from Magna Charta. For seventy years 
these teachings had moulded the belief that killed 
secession. Men who looked deeper, said the warn- 
ings of Daniel Webster had saved the Union. These 
philosophers forgot that the great defender of the 
Constitution, even in his noblest utterances, was 
only the disciple of a greater master. They forgot 
that even Webster's eloquence would have been of 
none effect without supreme power in the national 
government. Abraham Lincoln gave freedom to 
the slave ; but Lincoln would have been powerless, 
unless the government had been supreme. Before 
the century had been born, was sown the seed that 
bore such golden fruit. Do we detract from the 
honor of Webster and Lincoln, and their brave allies 
in the course of freedom.? Far from it. Principles, 
not men, govern America ; and we shall ever honor 
the leaders in our country's freedom, as we honor 
Luther and Calvin, and our leaders in religious 
freedom. 

Grant may have marshaled the armies of the Re- 



Alexander Hamilton. 51 

public ; Sherman, and Thomas, and Sheridan may- 
have led her troops to victory ; Farragut, and Foote, 
and Porter may have cleared the river and the ocean 
of her enemies ; but to none of these belongs the 
victory. 

The true surrender beneath the Appomattox apple- 
tree was of State government to national govern- 
ment. History repeats itself ; the surrender of 
theories in 1787 finds its counterpart in the surren- 
der of armies in 1865. Have we stripped the bays 
from living heroes, that we might strew them on the 
graves of buried greatness ? Have we denied our 
other benefactors, that we might do greater honor 
to Hamilton ? No! a thousand times no ! Hamil- 
ton was only one of that mighty host which sprang 
forth, armed and equipped for the country's defense. 
Men are but the instruments of God, we know ; yet 
we believe that next to those two who have saved 
the nation, stands the one whose principles have 
been its strongest bulwark. 

We then, of the nineteenth century, and citizens 
of these United States, stand triply indebted to 
Hamilton, for that organizing power which saved 
the country from financial ruin ; for the supremacy 
of the national government, that has protected it 
from foes abroad and enemies at home ; and, above 
all, for the adoption of the Constitution, thus secur- 
ing to us the blessings of civil and religious freedom. 
As to-day we rest secure beneath the aegis of the 
Constitution ; as we see a people of forty millions, 
prosperous and happy ; as we behold monarchies 
vanishing, and nations standing on the threshold of 



52 



Alexander Hamilton. 



free government ; let us, looking below the surface, 
remember and most gratefully and emphatically 
acknowledge our indebtedness to Alexander Ham- 
ilton. 





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ALEXANDER HAMILTON COMPARED WITH 
HIS EUROPEAN CONTEMPORARIES. 

BY JAMES L. BENNETT, '71. 

g^ M ljy j? LEXANDER HAMILTON ranks first 
Bht 1 m|^ among his American contemporaries 
M A\^« as a lawyer, financier, and politician. 
y j~^ vM[ These three qualities unite to form 
'^M^ffi the accomplished statesman. It is 
j^pWSi l our purpose to compare him, in these 
particulars, with the representative 
men of Europe and to ascertain his relative rank 
among them. We shall confine our inquiry to 
France and England as the nations representing 
the best fields for comparison. 

The United States, emerging from a condition of 
dependency on the mother country, bearing aloft 
her liberal and progressive ideas, without experi- 
ence, without law, torn by conflicting opinions and 
sectional prejudices, was about to enter upon the 
difficult task of forming an original government. 
The people could, indeed, be guided by the great 
principles of popular sovereignty, principles taught 
them no less by the experience of history than by 

53 



54 Alexander Haiuiltoii Compared with 

the instincts of nature; but how best to apply them 
in the construction of a government was the prob- 
lem to be solved by the American statesman. The 
authorship of these cardinal principles no one can 
claim. They came, the spontaneous outbreak of 
long, pent-up desires, fired by the oppression of 
the mother country. To direct the minds of this 
overjoyous people in their proper channel, to engraft 
the principles they cherished in the laws by which 
they were to be governed, was the task to which 
Hamilton devoted himself. Such was his mission ; 
such were the difificulties against which he con- 
tended. 

The French and American revolutions, the form- 
ing of the empire in India, and the varied successes 
of the English flag in every land rendered this the 
most complex and interesting period of English, as 
well as American history. It was adorned by an ar- 
ray of talent that finds no parallel. Fox, Burke, and 
Pitt were men, any one of whom would have rescued 
an age from oblivion. 

The condition of France was well-nigh indescriba- 
ble. The people for ages had been oppressed by 
unrelenting tyranny. They imagined that at last 
they saw the dawn of freedom, and they yielded to 
no check in their unbounded enthusiasm. The com- 
manding spirits of Danton, Mirabeau, and Talley- 
rand arose and disappeared amid the tumult, leaving 
behind them no trace but of blood. 

Such was the condition of these countries when 
Necker appeared in France, Erskine and Pitt in Eng- 
land, and Hamilton in the United States. 



His European Contemporaries. 55 

Lord Erskiiie in many respects resembled Hamil- 
ton. As lawyers, both men base their claims to pub- 
lic approval on higher grounds than the simple effort 
for their client's success. Both dazzled the legal 
world at their first appearance, and assumed, at once, 
high rank as constitutional lawyers. But their mo- 
tives were different. One worked for reputation and 
made his profession the controlling object in life ; 
with the other it was secondary to a higher aim, the 
establishment of the Constitution and the credit of 
the nation. Yet the power of Erskine's eloquence 
was often felt in the defense of the same principles 
for which Hamilton contended. He raised his voice 
for liberty of speech and the press, and the people 
became intelligent. He spoke against the tremen- 
dous doctrine of constructive treason, and English- 
men felt their lives secure. Wielding the eloquence 
of Burke and Fox, he was the most accomplished 
advocate of his time. His example to lawyers 
taught integrity and independence. The great les- 
son taught by Hamilton's experience, was that the 
highest legal attainments could be utilized with 
powerful effect, toward not only the integrity of law, 
but of government. Erskine used his power to bring 
about reform and hasten the progress of liberty; 
Hamilton, to form a government and to place it on 
a sound legal basis. When we consider the ability 
against which he contended, the power of his elo- 
quence and its wonderful effects, we are constrained 
to place Lord Erskine simply as a lawyer above all 
his contemporaries. In the broader light of a con- 
stitutional expounder, he finds his rival in Alexander 



56 Alexander Hamilton Compared with 

Hamilton. As a financier the comparison is most 
favorable to Hamilton. He was not, like Pitt, 
obliged to encounter the powerful opposition of 
the Fox and North coalition ; nor like Necker to 
reconcile his plans to the totally irreconcilable ele- 
ments of the nobility and the maddened populace. 
But he could not, like them, profit by the experi- 
ence of others. Our nation possesses sources inex- 
haustible but unknown. It was his to discover and 
develop them. The nation, in its infancy, shaken 
by discordant elements, forced by logic and circum- 
stances to accept a constitution to which a majority 
were opposed, denied the constitutionality of the 
necessary measures. Hamilton's task, therefore, be- 
gan back of his appointment as Secretary of the 
Treasury. In the Convention it was his sagacity 
which produced a financial system. In the " Feder- 
alist " it was his eloquence which convinced the peo- 
ple that these measures were just. Having thus 
established the basis of a sound financial system, 
wisdom dictated, alike to President, Congress, and 
the people, that Hamilton was the only man to con- 
duct the Treasury. Necker, by his own conceit, 
raised himself to an unmerited reputation. Lacking 
Hamilton's sagacity, he failed to conceive the differ- 
ence between the French and English nations. He 
reduced the expenses of the government and effected 
loans suf^cient for their immediate necessities. Con- 
sidering the excitement of the hour, he could hardly 
have done more. We call him, like Hamilton, hon- 
est ; like him, economical ; unlike Hamilton, he was 
not able to comprehend all the circumstances of his 
position. He was a man of talent, but not of gen- 



His European Contemporaries. 57 

ius. Pitt, as a financier, is more worthy of consid- 
eration. He found the debt of England increasing 
to an alarming extent. By a system of judicious 
economy he corrected the evil. His immense armies 
demanded fresh supplies. Seeking for a remedy, he 
resorted to the old schemes of the Walpole ministry. 
He had the experience of the past to guide him. Let 
him have the credit of profiting by it. Hamilton 
found the Treasury empty, the nation bankrupt. He 
was obliged to invent a theory, prove its merits and 
constitutionality, and apply it successfully. He did it 
to the satisfaction of his constituents and the aston- 
ishment of the world. He came into office upon no 
false theory like Necker, nor did he rely for success 
on the revived theories of former financiers as did 
Pitt. The resources of his own great mind enabled 
him to comprehend the case in all its bearings. With 
prophetic knowledge he produced his plan ; by un- 
tiring industry and matchless genius he insured its 
success. Hamilton in the originality, the execution, 
and the success of his schemes maintains, in history, 
the undoubted position of the best financier of his 
time. 

As a politician and statesman the comparison is 
scarcely less favorable. As a lawyer simply, Erskine 
was fully his equal. As a financier he had no equal. 
As a politician and statesman his rivals are rare in 
any age. Upon principles of honesty and integrity 
he placed himself, and gave his record to posterity 
to be honored and emulated. There is but one to 
whom it is fitting to compare him. William Pitt 
added all the experience of history to his powerful 
intellect, and prepared himself for a most brilliant 



58 Alexander Hamilto7i. 

future. He laid bare the corruptions of the minis- 
try, and Fox and North were prostrate before him. 
His command went forth and the entire resources of 
England became available. He held them in his 
grasp, wielded the greatest powers of Europe, and 
the great aristocrat trembled on his throne. 

France, whose idol was military glory, produced 
her Napoleon. His genius carried him beyond com- 
parison. The two nations of the English tongue, 
whose objects and interests centred in peace, diplo- 
macy, and statesmanship, rivaled each other in the 
careers of the two great statesmen, Pitt and Hamil- 
ton. Pitt's influence was international and momen- 
tary ; Hamilton's was local, but can only be meas- 
ured by the progress of liberal ideas. 

Alexander Hamilton surpassed all his contem- 
poraries in the originality and versatility of his 
genius, whether exercised in law, finance, or polity ; 
yielding to Necker in nothing, to Erskine only in 
legal ability, to Pitt only in the iron strength of his 
purpose ; as the great original genius of his age he 
had no superior. Danton, Robespierre, and Mira- 
beau passed from notice as mad fanatics without 
settled purpose. Fox, North, and Granville allowed 
partisan madness to rule over dictates of patriotism. 
As the greatest instrumentality in the origin of our 
government ; as the ablest maker and expounder of 
our laws; as the one to whom alone the credit of 
our nation is due ; as the scholar, the orator, the 
statesman, in that age of the world most dis- 
tinguished for its brilliant intellects ; the career of 
Hamilton dims the lustre of contemporary states- 
men. 



THE POSITION OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 
IN AMERICAN HISTORY. 




BY J. HENRY SHEPHERD, '72. 

N the 6th of September, 1774, the 
citizens of New York held a pubHc 
meeting to consider the oppressive 
course of Parliament toward the 
colonies. Hired emissaries of the 
crown, scattered through the assem- 
blage, sought to destroy its harmony. 
A sophomore of King's College, having noticed that 
several points' had been left untouched by the 
difTerent speakers, came forward to address the 
people. At first his manner was hesitating, owing 
to the dififidence of youth, but soon the inspiration 
within him broke through every restraint, until he 
swayed the minds of his hearers with the force of 
the forest-born orator of Virginia. The clearness of 
his style, the depth of feeling with which he por- 
trayed their wrongs, added to the most convincing 
persuasiveness, welded those at variance into a 
harmonious whole. In the same year, when the 
ablest Tories assailed Congress, when the people 

59 



6o Alexander Hamilton 

began to waver in their march toward liberty, 
Hamilton grappled with the most vigorous cham- 
pions of England, refuted their arguments, and well 
earned the title of " Vindicator of Congress." 

The ability displayed in these controversies placed 
him among the foremost writers of the day. 
Through the long struggle, as confidential adviser 
and secretary of the commander-in-chief, he wielded 
the pen of the army. No man was more familiar 
with the embarrassments of the country, or more 
intimate with its resources. He aided alike in plan- 
ning campaigns, preparing negotiations with foreign 
powers. Quick in seizing ideas, patient in working 
out details, rich in the resources of language, he was 
well fitted to interpret between Washington and the 
world. When darkness spread a gloom over the 
land, when five years of indecisive war had elapsed 
during the most chaotic confusion of finances, he 
projected a policy which restored the ruined credit, 
furnished new sinews of war, and fed the half-starved 
heroes of Trenton, Saratoga, and Valley Forge. 

The success of his financial scheme led to the 
establishment of the national bank, which played 
such a conspicuous part towards the close of the 
Revolution and in the infancy of the Republic. 
Hamilton suggested the executive departments 
which introduced s}"stem and economy into the 
government and reduced the annual expenditure 
from $20,000,000 to $8,000,000. 

During the last campaign of the war, Hamilton 
was elected to represent New York in Congress. 
Here he exerted a controlling influence. He was 



tn Amei^uan History. 6i 

chairman of its most important committees. The 
brightness of the victory of England was dimmed 
by a new cloud of danger. A deep murmur of dis- 
content arose from the army because this had been 
neglected. Hamilton, sensible of their accumulated 
wrongs, pleaded their cause, nor did he cease his 
efforts until he wrung from Congress a fulfilment of 
the nation's obligations to these heroes. 

He introduced the establishment of a national 
coinage, the placing of the army on a peace footing, 
and the creation of a navy. He planned treaties 
beneficial to commerce. He established the best 
revenue system the nation has ever had — a system 
which promoted frugality, taxed extravagance, and 
encouraged home industry. Although the duty was 
light, yet it filled an empty treasury, eased the bur- 
dens of taxation, and served as a security for a for- 
eign loan. 

He labored for an enlargement of the powers of 
Congress which was necessary for the efficient gov- 
ernment of the States. While others sought com- 
promises, between their love of popularity, and their 
sense of duty ; while they combated for the interests 
of their States, Hamilton rose above sectionalism, 
and sought only to found a government which 
would perpetuate the hard-earned liberties. Alone 
he urged an act of oblivion and amnesty toward 
those who had aided the king. He pointed to the 
inconsistency between proscription and the princi- 
ples of 1776. He drew up the final treaty between 
England and the United States. 

After the adjournment of Congress, he began his 



62 Alexander Hamilton 

professional career. New York had passed the Tres- 
pass Act, and this conflicted with the treaty of 
peace. It asserted the State. It denied the right 
of the Confederation to make treaties binding on 

o 

the States. 

Hamilton's first effort was in the cause of national 
integrity. He denied the right of parties to sue for 
injuries committed during the war. Passion, preju- 
dice, and sympathy for a poor widow were arrayed 
against him ; but his eloquence secured justice and 
the integrity of national faith. 

The defects of the Confederation had prolonged 
the war, increased its expense, and after the peace 
threatened the disruption of the Union. Its treaties 
were disregarded by the States ; its calls for money 
ridiculed. Industry was paralyzed, trade annihilated, 
foreign navigation acts had driven our commerce 
from the seas. Foreign influence, the bane of popu- 
lar institutions, was felt in the very halls of Con- 
gress. Anarchy was hurrying the nation into civil 
war, when Hamilton, a member of the New York 
legislature, introduced a resolution instructing Con- 
gress to call a national convention to provide a new 
constitution. 

Violent opposition everywhere arose, especially in 
New York and Massachusetts, where the champions 
of State sovereignty wielded their greatest influence. 
It was with difificulty the States were prevailed upon 
to send delegates. New York sent Hamilton, Yates, 
and Lansing. The two latter were advocates of 
State rights, and cast their votes with Massachusetts 
against a strong federal government. The hostility 



hi American History. 63 

ended in their withdrawal from the Convention ; 
leaving New York without a voice in that body. 
Their party, intent on State aggrandizement, saw 
through the commercial advantages the future 
superiority of the Empire State. 

In the early part of the session, Hamilton pro- 
posed a system of government which, although 
rejected, served as a basis of the general plan. He 
was a member of the committee which made the 
final draft. His labors may be well summed up in 
the language of Johnson, " If the Constitution did 
not succeed on trial, Hamilton was less responsible 
than any other member, for he fully pointed out the 
infirmities to which it was liable. If it answered 
the fond expectations of the public, the community 
were more indebted to him than to any other man, 
for he labored most emphatically to heal those in- 
firmities, and to guard against the evils to which it 
was exposed." The charge that he was a monarchist 
finds its refutation in the testimony of his colleagues 
and in his own declaration of principles. He de- 
clared that the political principles of this country 
would endure nothing but a republican form of gov- 
ernment. 

The great task of the American statesman after 
the framing of the Constitution was to secure its 
ratification. For this purpose Hamilton, Madison, 
and Jay published the " Federalist." In their 
articles they pointed to the defects of the Confedera- 
tion and their remedy by the adoption of this Con- 
stitution. Hamilton was the master spirit of the 
" Federalist." His acuteness of reasoning, diligent 



64 Alexander Hamittoit 

research, and soul-stirring earnestness carried con- 
viction to the mass of the people. 

The " Federalist " has been compared with the writ- 
ings of Aristotle, Montesquieu, and Burke. It has 
been the wonder and delight of European statesmen. 
It has filled the bosom of Americans with patriotism, 
and stands next to the Constitution among the 
precious legacies of the golden age of American 
statesmen, orators, and patriots. It should be 
cherished as one of the ablest expositions of the 
Constitution. In its effects, it stands far above the 
spirit of the laws, for it realized its most glorious 
visions. It enlisted friends throughout all parts of 
the Union ; conquered the prejudices of Clinton, the 
logic of Samuel Adams, the fiery eloquence of 
Patrick Henry. 

After the inauguration of the new Constitution, 
Hamilton accepted the position which was the most 
difficult in the government. The maxims he intro- 
duced in the management of the finances have 
governed the Treasury ever since. From these 
varied and extensive labors, his position in Ameri- 
can history is to be judged. 

Hamilton stands as the intellectual peer of the 
statesmen of the time. Among all speculative 
philosophers he is second to none. His genius 
devised the splendid system of government. Every 
thought was allied to it. It absorbed his attention 
in the camp, on the toilsome march, and in the halls 
of Congress. In his services for the Union, his 
greatness of intellect, posterity will recognize a 
resemblance to the chief, whose adviser and bosom 
friend he was. 



In American History. 65 

What Washington was to the age which preceded 
the Constitution, Hamilton was to the age that 
witnessed its birth and introduction. Without the 
one, the young RepubHc might never have existed. 
Without the other, it might have been the mere 
record of a past institution, whose history had been 
glorious until faction and civil discord had turned it 
into a record of mournful recollections. No 
Chaeronea witnessed his cowardly flight, or vEgina 
bore testimony to his unmanly indulgence. As 
orator, statesman, and military hero, his trophies 
are unsurpassed. Monmouth and Yorktown wit- 
nessed his valor. The halls of justice and legisla- 
tion testified to his eloquence. 

So long as the American government shall be a 
model for the nations of the earth ; so long as it 
blesses the oppressed ; so long as its flag shall be 
an emblem of the highest civilization ; so long shall 
it stand as a monument to its founder, Alexander 

Hamilton. 

s 



'i^MW^i 




THE CAREER AND CHARACTER OF ALEX- 
ANDER HAMILTON. 

BY OLIVER E. BRANCH, '73. 




HE name of Alexander Hamilton is 
closely identified with the struggle of 
the Revolution and the founding of 
the Republic. We are to review his 
military and civil career, and con- 
sider the prominent traits of his 
character. 
The martial spirit of Hamilton was early manifest. 
" I wish there was a war," he wrote from St. Croix ; 
" I contemn this groveling position of a clerk." His 
wish was soon gratified. Arriving in America dur- 
ing the exciting days preceding the Revolution, he 
quickly espoused the cause of the colonies; rousing 
them to resistance by his impassioned eloquence ; 
and defending their actions in articles so ably 
written, that they were ascribed to the classic pen 
of Jay. 

Upon the breaking out of hostilities he left his 
books at King's College, raised a company of 

66 



Alexander Hamilton. 67 

artillery over which he was appointed captain, and 
at the battle of Long Island covered the retreat of 
our army to the Heights of Harlem, where his skill 
in constructing defenses caught the observant eye of 
Washington. At White Plains he again distin- 
guished himself; bore an active part in the brilliant 
achievements of Trenton and Princeton, bringing his 
shattered company into winter quarters at Morris- 
town. Here he became aide-de-camp on the staff of 
Washington. At once the bosom friend of his com- 
mander, Hamilton preserved a constant fidelity all 
through the dreary night from '']'] to '81. Were 
important letters to be written, prisoners to be 
exchanged, missions executed, intrigues thwarted, 
cabals crushed, to Hamilton Washington ever looked 
for assistance. In him he found his most trusted 
Heutenant, his wisest counselor. 

Relieved from the more active duties of the 
soldier, Hamilton early directed his attention to 
those problems of government which the weakness 
of the Confederation demonstrated. Congress was 
demoralized, the army reduced, industry paralyzed, 
the currency depreciated. The cause of these evils 
he discovered, their remedy he suggested ; and the 
letters to Morris and Duane, with the papers of the 
" Continentalist," stand to-day as the record of his 
marvelous genius. An unexpected incident led to 
Hamilton's resignation from the staff of Washing- 
ton ; soon after, he was placed in command of a 
battalion of infantry. Eager to achieve the success 
in arms which had been the dream of his youth, he 
entered upon the closing campaign of the Revolu- 



68 The Career and Character of 

tion, and at the head of his troops he planted the 
tattered banner of the colonies upon the parapets of 
Yorktown. 

The war ending, Hamilton returned to civil life. 
He immediately began the study of law ; was 
admitted to practice in a few months, and quickly 
rose to the front rank of the profession already 
adorned by the talents of Livingston and Harrison. 
From his splendid achievements at the bar he was 
called to the aid of the still unsettled States. Peace 
'had come, but not prosperity; victory, but with it 
discord ; exhaustion, but not repose. The States, 
no longer bound together by the power of a com- 
mon interest and the fear of a common danger, were 
ready to rise up against one another in domestic 
war. To calm local prejudices, party strifes, and 
sectional animosities; to form a healthy public sen- 
timent and lay the foundations of a permanent 
government, Hamilton steadfastly labored through 
those five years of unrest succeeding the Revolution. 
Representing New York in the Congress of '82, he 
was recognized as the leading spirit in its delibera- 
tions. Often originating, always advocating, sound 
systems of national policy, sustaining them with all 
the power of his eloquence, he there gave evidence 
of that breadth of understanding which signalized 
his subsequent career. In the New York legislature 
of "^j, we see him again the champion of the wisest 
measures. Here he overthrew the opposition to the 
treaty, and secured the passage of the act for the 
establishment of the State University and its 
schemes of public instruction. 



Alexander Hamilton. 69 

The measures adopted by the Congress of '82, to 
relieve the financial embarrassments of the States, 
proved ineffectual. From this resulted the Conven- 
tion of Annapolis in '87, in which Hamilton drafted 
the memorable report to the States which called for 
the Convention of Philadelphia. In that remarka- 
ble body, rendered yet more imposing by the 
presence of Washington, we find Hamilton, at the 
age of thirty, an acknowledged leader. How much 
he contributed to the final action of the Convention 
we may never know. " Yet," says Gouverneur Morris, 
"the leading principles of the present Constitution 
were the ideas of Hamilton." True it is that the 
Constitution when submitted was not such as he 
wished, but when convinced it was the best then 
possible, he spared no effort to secure its adoption. 
How well he labored the immortal pages of the 
" Federalist " testify. 

Remarkable as was the career of Hamilton thus 
far, the crowning act of his life was to follow. In 
the discharge of his duties as Secretary of the 
Treasury, it was necessary for him not only to 
organize that department, but to form and put into 
operation a complete system of revenue and finance. 
Money, there was none; public and private credit] 
were gone ; agriculture and manufactures prostrate ; ! 
commerce broken ; the national debt unpaid. In 
such a condition of affairs Hamilton began his work. 
Out of this chaos and confusion he brought system 
and order. Immediately commerce, manufactures, 
and agriculture revived ; credit was established ; 
revenue created ; the public faith maintained ; and 



70 The Career and Character of 

the young nation started upon its career of pros- 
perity and honor. 

Subsequent events in the career of Hamilton 
estabhshed beyond doubt his reputation of a states- 
man. To state how he aided in suppressing insur- 
rection, preserving neutrahty with foreign nations, 
sustaining the administration of Washington and 
thwarting the designs of Burr, would be to repeat 
the history of those dangerous days of the Republic ; 
and not until that fatal encounter with Burr did the 
nation realize how beneficial had been his life, how 
glorious his career. 

Character is the complement of the qualities by 
which a person is distinguished. These qualities 
may be analyzed. They are seen in a life ; mani- 
fested in a career. What then was the character of 
Hamilton ? Sprung from a father of Scottish origin, 
born of a mother in whose veins flowed the blood of 
the Huguenots, he combined somewhat of the specu- 
lative vigor of Scotch mind with the nervous activity 
of the French. From these inherent qualities were 
developed the prominent traits of his character, — 
sagacity, wisdom, energy, practicality. His life is 
crowded with the evidence of these sterling traits. 
It was his sagacity in striking at the principles of 
action which astonished his hearers in the " great 
meeting in the fields." This it was that made him 
the confidential adviser of Washington and gave him 
success in the field, the cabinet, the convention, and 
at the bar. His was the wisdom that organized the 
Treasury and proposed a stronger government. His 
the persisting energy which followed the struggling 



Alexander Hamilton. 71 

colonies through " evil report and good report." His 
the practicality which set in motion the best sys- 
tem of revenue and finance which the nation has 
ever seen. 

To these elements of his character was added that 
of great integrity. Above the trickery of the mere 
politician, he stooped to no concession in which 
manifest right would be compromised or the public 
faith violated. With a chivalric sense of honor 
which could not endure even the reprimand of 
Washington, a devotion to justice which dared at 
the risk of position and influence to defend the right 
of a hostile nation, he stood fearless and unmoved. 

We have noticed the separate traits of Hamilton's 
character. Viewed as a whole, it was eminently 
objective. Ambitious he was, but rarely for self. 
Engaging manners, singular genius, variety of talent, 
and strength of intellect, qualities which might have 
made him a most dangerous citizen, he devoted to 
his country, often to the sacrifice of his own inter- 
ests. Of him said Talleyrand, " I have seen a man 
who has built up the fortunes of a nation, toiling all 
night to support his family." For a Union strong 
and enduring, he lived and labored. No other evi- 
dence of his disinterested character is needed than 
the fact that, with every opportunity to secure a 
fortune, he retired from the management of the 
Treasury a poor man. Rather than that the suspi- 
cion of oflficial corruption should rest upon him, he 
disclosed a stain upon his moral character which 
ordinary prudence would have concealed and which 
charity has long since forgiven. Rather than dimin- 



72 



Career and Character. 



ish his chances of usefulness to the nation, he yielded 
to the imperious claims of false honor, and yield- 
ing fell. 

Hamilton was not perfect, though in public life he 
committed few great errors. Incorruptible in office, 
inflexible in the discharge of duty, his services were 
of lasting benefit to the nation, and have made his 
name and fame as enduring as the Republic. 





ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THOMAS 
JEFFERSON. 

BY GEORGE W. KNOX, '74. 




FTER the war for independence was 
ended, when the national existence 
was assured by the adoption of the 
Constitution, two great parties were 
formed. Both professed the same 
great end, — the welfare of the people. 
Both professed equal zeal for the 
Constitution, but each held the other's views to be 
radically wrong, attributed sinister designs to the 
opposing party, and proclaimed no safety for the 
nation, except in its own counsels. 

Each party, patriotic and sincere, was willing to 
support its views even with blood. Each was mar- 
shaled by a leader of consummate ability and perfect 
integrity. 

For a time the neutral position of Washington 
restrained the conflict. All united on him as the 
head of the government, and the political struggles 
were confined to matters of minor importance. But 
even in the council of the great revolutionary chief- 

73 



74 Alexander Hamilton 

tain the war at length broke out. The great leaders 
were nominally united in Washington's cabinet ; 
but, in truth, all the deliberations of that coterie 
of statesmen were disturbed by their political dis- 
sensions. 

The history of these two men, Hamilton and 
Jefferson, is a political history of their times ; and 
in their influence can be traced the influence of those 
primitive parties upon the after life of the nation. 
Both men were well fitted for the parts they were to 
play. Hamilton was a leader of leaders. Haughty, 
domineering, aristocratic, feeling his innate superior- 
ity to the mass of men, he was little suited to move 
the popular mind. Among the few men knowing 
him as he really was, his personal magnetism, clear 
mind, wonderful power of conception, and still more 
remarkable powers of execution, brought him un- 
questioned supremacy. 

Ever unpopular among the people, he indirectly 
influenced them more than any other man of his 
time. He ruled his party with a rod of iron. At 
the beginning of every campaign, and at the opening 
of every Congress, his hand marked out the path to 
be pursued. Holding the reins of the minority he 
was victorious in many a conflict, and for twelve 
years made his party dominant. 

Hamilton was distrustful of the people and openly 
admired the British constitution. Anarchy was the 
only danger he thought imminent ; and he strove to 
prevent the dissolution of the Union by giving the 
greatest possible power to the general government. 
Jefferson was Hamilton's antipode. Finely edu- 



And Thomas Jefferson. 75 

cated, early entrusted with responsible positions, 
idolized as the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, plain in dress and tastes, he was eminently 
fitted for popular leadership. Added to all these 
personal attractions he was a firm believer in the 
people, and regarded them as the true source of 
government. He saw the spectre of a tyrant in every 
act of the Federalists, and thought Hamilton ever 
plotting for monarchical institutions. A democrat 
of democrats, he disliked all ceremony and aris- 
tocracy. In return, the people honored, trusted, 
loved him. 

In Washington's cabinet Hamilton was, in the 
main, successful. He advocated the strictest integ- 
rity and honor in the payment of national indebted- 
ness. He carried out his doctrines of government to 
their legitimate conclusion in the assumption of the 
State debts by the general government. 

Jefferson, thinking this country a confederacy, not 
a nation, opposed him. Hamilton planned the estab- 
lishment of a national bank, issuing its own paper 
and performing all the functions of a great financial 
institution. Jefferson, thinking too great power 
was given to the government, opposed the scheme. 
Hamilton succeeded in both, and the credit and 
prosperity of the nation were restored. 

While in domestic concerns Hamilton's influence 
was predominant, Jefferson controlled the foreign 
relations. He continually showed his hostility to 
Great Britain and friendship to France in spite of 
Hamilton's opposition. Yet above all parties, Jef- 
ferson loved his country and never allowed his 



76 Alexander Hamilton 

foreign sympathies to interfere with the national 
honor. 

At last Hamilton succeeded in his plans and 
added the prestige of Washington's great name to 
his party. JefTerson, tired of broils and unsuccessful 
conflicts, resigned. Hamilton, actually needing 
money for the support of his family and no longer 
confronted by a worthy opponent, soon followed. 
Their places were filled with Federalists. Federal- 
ism was triumphant in Congress and the cabinet. 

When Washington declared his purpose to retire 
at the end of his second term, the political strife 
again vehemently broke forth. For the position of 
President, Adams and Jefferson were the candidates. 
Hamilton, still ruling in the councils of his party, 
was again successful. For a time all was smooth 
sailing. The embryo French war forced the prin- 
ciples of the Federalists even upon the Republicans. 
In their strength the Federalists were weak. Adams, 
confident of his popularity, resented the rule of 
Hamilton, turned his friends from the cabinet, and 
proclaimed more moderate views. The party en- 
tered upon the fourth presidential election torn by 
internal dissensions and suffering from the reaction 
consequent upon the French peace. It was defeated. 
Its fall was final. 

Jefferson ruled so wisely and in such conformity 
to the people's will that his power was secure. Even 
after his retirement to the quiet of Monticello he 
continued to control the affairs of the nation. 

What has been the posthumous influence of the 
two men ? Whose ideas have prevailed ? Both 



And Thomas yefferson. yj 

have exerted a moulding influence on the govern- 
ment. 

After the Revolution, when the people had just 
made tremendous sacrifices, the national tendency 
was to the extreme of popular freedom. Anarchy 
was the real danger. Federalism was the corrective. 
The national idea needed to be strengthened. Great 
power was needed to enable the government to fill 
the Treasury and restore prosperity. Hamilton, 
preferring limited monarchy and distrusting the 
people, possessed the precise qualities needed to re- 
strain the Jacobin tendencies of the populace. After 
a period of peace and prosperity, however, when the 
people began to trust the government that protected 
them, it was time to exalt popular sovereignty. Jef- 
ferson, as President, checked the tide that threat- 
ened to carry the government to limited monarchy. 

The influence of both men remains. Public 
opinion, formed by long experience, agrees with 
Jefferson in trusting implicitly the people, in making 
them the source of political power ; in part, at least, 
believing the old proverb, vox populi, vox Dei. At 
the same time it believes with Hamilton in clothing 
the general government with great power, making 
no confederacy but a true nation. 

Hamilton and Jefferson could lay no claim to per- 
fection. Their lives and systems were alike faulty 
and incomplete ; but their private sins and public 
mistakes have been too rigorously rebuked. At 
least, after time has cooled the warmth of party 
strife, when their real characters may be impartially 
known, all the ancient slanders and political gossip 



7^ 



Alexander Hainilton. 



should be forgotten. Their distinguished services 
to the infant Republic surely entitle them to the love 
and reverence of their countrymen. 

With their errors forgiven, their contentions for- 
gotten, their virtues exalted, their names should 
ever be linked together as joint authors of systems 
that are the foundation of our crovernment. 




THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE POLI- 
TICAL DOCTRINES OF ALEXANDER 
HAMILTON. 

BY WILLIAM H. DE WITT, '75. 




;N the year 1787 was assembled in Phila- 
delphia a body of thoughtful and 
earnest men. The dignity of Wash- 
ington and the judgment of Franklin 
ruled the house ; while the wisdom 
of Alexander Hamilton gave eloquent 
expression to the thoughts and hopes 
in every man's mind. A few years later, there was a 
convention in the city of Paris. There also sat the 
representatives of the people. But there were hate 
and terror and bitterness ; while at their very door 
stood that black engine which was marking with 
blood the hours of the French Republic. 

Each assembly was making a political constitution, 
which should " secure the blessings of liberty, to 
themselves and their posterity." In their first mani- 
festations, the revolutions in France and America 
were alike. In each, man asserted his rights; and 
taught modern politics a lesson in liberty. 

79 



8o The French RevoltLtion 

Whenever a people overthrow a tyranny, only the 
soundest wisdom and virtue can establish a safe gov- 
ernment. With this task before them the conven- 
tions met at Philadelphia and at Paris. The action 
of each assembly was the development of its national 
character. The moral and political constitution of 
the French rendered self-government impossible. 
There was among them no faith, no trust. Con- 
science was fettered by a church, or distorted by a 
sentimental atheism. There was no strong middle 
class. The nobility once overthrown, a debased 
populace were the legislators. In the American 
colonies, everything was different. Their strength 
was a substantial middle class. The virtues of Puri- 
tanism and the republican principles of Calvin were 
in the minds of all the people. 

Under such circumstances the demagogues of 
France led their country through the Reign of 
Terror, back to despotism ; and the Federal party 
in America guided a trembling people past their 
dangers, to the realization of a safe popular gov- 
ernment. 

The political doctrines of Alexander Hamilton 
were the principles of the Federal party; and Fed- 
eralism and the French Revolution present the 
strongest contrasts. The immediate cause of the 
latter was bankruptcy and starvation. Men united 
to obtain bread ; but after the first outbreak there 
was only a confused strife of factions, a fierce strug- 
gle for life. 

The American Revolution was a solemn declara- 
tion of manhood ; and its principles were developed 



And Alexander Hamilton. 8i 

by the Federal party. Federalism had a definite 
object. Its effort was to form a government which 
would give liberty to every man, and security to 
every man's neighbor. 

A popular government is safe from the tyranny of 
an aristocracy; but its very nature is an invitation 
to mob legislation. To preserve the country from 
the excesses of democracy, was the constant effort of 
Alexander Hamilton. His doctrine was to give the 
people the power of governing, but not the opportu- 
nity of tyrannizing ; the responsibility of supporting, 
but not the liberty of overthrowing the state. He 
would make a government representative ; but not 
representative of ignorant masses. He would banish 
the title of aristocracy, but not the distinction of 
virtue and intellect. 

The course of the French Revolution is a striking 
illustration of the evils which Hamilton feared. 
There, distinctions of name and intellect were alike 
destroyed. The worst men ruled ; and the strength 
of their government was the fear which it could 
inspire. French terrorism had its representative in 
America. Popular leaders sought to raise mobs after 
the style of the Paris canaille. The riot of Balti- 
more would have become the streets of revolutionary 
Paris ; and the opponent of Hamilton in that sad 
tragedy on the shores of the Hudson would have 
added strength to the councils of Marat and Robes- 
pierre. Opposition to such an element marked 
Hamilton's political policy, and saved us from the 
oft-repeated fate of republics. 

When the American colonies had gained inde- 



82 The French Revolution 

pendence, there sprang up a feeling of competition 
and jealousy. The object of the Federal party was 
complete unification and a strong central govern- 
ment. Their means to this end was mutual consent 
and agreement. Their way to Union was through 
self-sacrifice for general welfare. Such sentiments 
among the revolutionists of France were unknown. 
The want of a strong central government was the 
nation's destruction. Hundreds of terrorists gave 
law to thousands of terrified. He who thought of 
compromise was lost ; and the only success was be- 
yond the death of every opponent. 

Federalism and the French Revolution manifest 
their principles in their characteristics. France pro- 
claimed a universal brotherhood. She ofTered sym- 
pathy and assistance to every sufTerer; and, with 
her own people starving and murdered, wished to 
lead all nations to a grand realization of liberty. 
America made no such gracious professions ; but 
•modestly established a safe republican government. 

In France was wild sentiment and shocking pro- 
fanity. A rouged opera-dancer was made " Goddess 
of Reason," while senators and rabble together fell 
down and worshiped their new divinity. Robespierre 
decreed "the existence of the Supreme Being"; 
while Clootz held, that "there is but one God, and 
that God is 'the people.' " 

In contrast to such a spirit is the sober dignity of 
the founders of our Republic. They still remem- 
bered and adored Him, who had been to them the 
God of battles and the God of peace ; who had led 
their fathers' steps to a free land, and who would 



And Alexander Hamilton, 83 

guide the feet of their children through a prosperous 
and happy future. 

The French began with their Revolution a new 
era, and dated '' Year of the Republic, One." The 
American people would rather know the time of their 
political birth as " the Year of our Lord, 1776." 

The fundamental principle of federalism was law-' 
ful liberty ; that of French Revolution was lawless 
freedom. The one viewed man as a moral agent and 
an accountable being ; the other, as an utterly irre- 
sponsible creature. The French Revolution taught 
some narrow creed about the " rights of man." 
Federalism enforced the old lesson of " Love thy 
neighbor." The one was heartless selfishness ; the 
other was Christian charity. 

The results of the French Revolution and fed- 
eralism were what their beginnings promised. 
France found and proclaimed liberty. But she 
only grasped that long-sought blessing, to turn it 
into a curse. She distorted and defiled the reality, 
after the ideal had been so ardently worshiped. Her 
Revolution ruined the character of her own people ; 
and crushed the hopes of others. It connected with 
the thought of liberty, all the horrors of the Sep- 
tember murders and the revolutionary tribunal. 

The labors of Alexander Hamilton and his party 
have borne their fruits. Men had long dreamed of a 
republic which would guarantee to its citizens lib- 
erty and security. The experiment had often been 
tried, and had often failed. But here were good 
materials for a new effort. The people were pre- 
pared for a popular government ; and the right men 
were at hand to guide them. 



84 



The French RevohUion. 



Since the foundation of our Republic, the teach- 
ings of Hamilton have been often forgotten. State 
rights have been presumptuous, and the Constitution 
has been profaned. The government which " derived 
its just powers from the consent of the governed " 
has been severed with violence, and united by 
force. Indiscriminate suffrage has gained ground ; 
and more power has been placed where Hamilton 
feared to trust it. But through all our history, our 
wisest statesmen and strongest administrations have 
made the Constitution their chart and compass. In 
perils at home and abroad, our safeguard has been 
the Constitution ; and the framework of the Con- 
stitution is the political doctrines of Alexander 
Hamilton. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND SALMON P. 
CHASE. 

BY HOWARD P. EELLS, '76. 

" j^a^Sa Sl HE history of American independence 
iiBB Ha^^l presents two crises, one in its attain- 
Bm§ SwSP ment, the other in its preservation. 
uiH sIMII ^" each finance was the question of 
^^ WsSm questions. The arbiters of the finan- 
^^a ! > ! t^a j^ cial poHcy shaped the national destiny. 

They were Hamilton and Chase. 
The men were different as their fields of action. 
Hamilton's life though illustrious was varied and 
fragmentary ; begun in romantic uncertainty, break- 
ing off in the midst like some theme of a tragic 
poet, amid tears and blood. Toward him we look, 
as said the Greek poet of his tragedy, " with pity 
and with fear " ; toward Chase as to a Christian as 
well as a patriot. One was the elegant man of 
society, magnetic in personal attraction, favorite of 
all. The other of stately bearing, reserved in aspect 
and demeanor, indifferent to social allurements. 

In intellectual power, in depth and versatility of 
mind, Hamilton was greatly superior. But he was 

85 



86 Alexander Hamilton 

wont to sacrifice expediency to persistent assertion 
of personal convictions, detracting from the popu- 
larity of his measures, jeoparding their success. 
Chase tempered advocacy of principles with fore- 
casting wisdom. Deferring when possible to the 
popular sentiment he insured the accomplishment 
of his purposes. His mind was not speculative. He 
was actor rather than thinker. As lawyers Hamil- 
ilton was an advocate, Chase a jurist. The former 
by eloquence and subtlety of mind excelled at the 
bar ; the latter by logic, dignity, and method was 
fitted for the bench. As financiers Hamilton pos- 
sessed genius to originate. Chase wisdom to con- 
duct ; one was theorist of the possible, the other of 
the probable ; one was constructive, the other 
executive. 

" By introducing order into our finances," said 
Hamilton, " by restoring public credit, not by gain- 
ing battles, are we finally to attain our object." He 
saw that besides the constitutional authority neces- 
sary to its existence, the government needed a public 
Treasury supported by private capital. The wealthy 
and influential must be attached by ties of personal 
and pecuniary advantage. The experience of our 
civil war tended to confirm Hamilton's theory, that 
the Union was in more danger from an undue as- 
sertion of State authority than from executive 
usurpation. 

The first Secretary of the Treasury unfolded his 
scheme of a national bank as containing " the in- 
gredients to constitute a wholesome, solid, and 
beneficial paper credit." Believing paper emissions 



A7td Salmon P. Chase. ^j 

by the federal government a seducing and danger- 
ous expedient, liable to abuse, and " likely to pro- 
duce an inflated and artificial condition," he remitted 
such issues to the several States. A departure from 
this principle was the great error in the policy of 
Chase. In the pressure of a financial crisis, the 
Treasury empty, credit exhausted, every other ex- 
pedient rejected by Congress, he assented to a 
measure which his judgment condemned, — the sub- 
stitution of United States legal-tender notes for 
bank circulation. Chase himself as Chief Justice 
afterwards declared the measure unconstitutional. 
Political economists agree that the license extended 
to the department was employed to an extent which 
depreciated the currency and rendered the return to 
specie payments a remote possibility. 

The national banking system as elaborated by 
Chase was a war measure. It served the imperative 
need of the times. Upon its permanent utility 
financiers are divided. Only when divested of its 
war associations and made to operate upon a coin 
basis can this be determined. That it strengthened 
government credit, is adapted to the demands of 
business, and being subject to government control 
furnishes a currency of uniform value throughout 
the States, are the chief merits of the system. The 
main objections urged against it are its control by 
the central government, the possibility of its em- 
ployment in the interest of political parties, and its 
tendency toward centralization. Yet in the words 
of McCulloch, " It is the best system now in exist- 
ence, and should be sustained until a better is 



88 Alexander Hamilton 

devised or until the country is prepared to do with- 
out banks altogether/' 

To ripen inquiry into action, to justify the Revo- 
lution by its fruits, was the design of Hamilton. He 
was architect of an ideal form of government, framer 
of much that is best in the Constitution, originator 
of a financial system which gave an impetus to 
enterprise and trafflc. and afforded the germ of the 
national system of to-day. For Chase it was to 
maintain that government and Constitution, to 
amplify and complete that system. To him we 
owe the machinery of the Treasury department as 
it now exists. To his executive energy the nation is 
indebted for measures which, however questionable 
in their ultimate effect, sustained our armies and car- 
ried the war to a successful issue. When the per- 
plexing years of his Secretaryship were ended, he 
wrote to William Cullen Bryant, " Looking back I 
see no measure which my judgment condemns ex- 
cept the issue of legal-tender coupons. . . . My 
grand objects have been to provide for the vast de- 
mands of the war and to substitute a national bank- 
note currency." The attainment of these objects in 
face of obstacles and opposition was the glory of his 
administration. " Whether the genius of Hamilton, 
dealing with great exigencies and with the small 
resources, transcended that of Chase, meeting the 
largest exigencies with great resources, is an un- 
profitable speculation. They stand together in the 
judgment of mankind the great financiers of our 
history." 

While the fame of Hamilton will shine brighter 



And Salmon P. Chase. 



89 



than that of Chase, it is doubtful whether his service 
was more vital. Hamilton's official career though 
brilliant was brief. That of Chase included a gen- 
eration. In each love of country was the prime 
incentive. Hamilton was loved perhaps more than ] 
trusted ; Chase trusted more than loved. 




.^^1?^^^®/^^^ 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND WILLIAM H. 
SEWARD AS POLITICAL LEADERS. 

BY HENRY W. COCKERILL, '77. 



mm i 



HE Revolution and the Rebellion are 
the two crises of our national life. 
Following the Revolution came the 
Democratic party led by Jefferson, 
and the Federal party under the 
leadership of Hamilton. The latter 
impressed itself upon the new-born 
national life, and disappeared from the political 
arena. 

Preceding and during the Rebellion, there were 
two political parties. The one adopted the views 
of Jefferson as given in the Resolutions of 1798 ; the 
other held to the heritage of the Federalists. Of 
the latter party, William H. Seward was, for years, 
the acknowledged leader. We are to compare 
Hamilton, the Federal, with Seward, the Republi- 
can leader. 

As political leaders there are between Hamilton 
and Seward many and striking contrasts. Each led 
his party through danger, peril, and war, and each 

90 



Alexander Hamilton. g l 

is remembered to-day with grateful affection. But 
their labors were different. Hamilton labored to 
create the Union ; Seward to preserve it. 

At the beginning of the Revolution, Hamilton, 
with the enthusiasm of youth, " engaged first his 
pen, and then his sword, in the stern contest." 
From his first entrance into the army till "the Little 
Lion " planted our tattered ensign on the parapets 
of Yorktown, he was always the brave, impetuous, 
chivalric leader. Peace declared, the soldier became 
the statesman, and he entered into a bloodless, 
though no less stern and weighty conflict. Amid 
open rebellion, disgraceful riots, anarchy itself driv- 
ing our country to ruin, with clear head and steady 
will he reasoned, persuaded, and led the nation into 
the path of liberty, secured by constitutTon, and 
strengthened by law. 

As Scotch he loved liberty, but loved order more. 
With the nervous activity of the French he exe- 
cuted with vigor what he planned with shrewdness. 
With these characteristics there was none in his day 
more fully able to meet the demands of the hour. 
His warm and kindly nature, lively manners, and 
brilliant conversation drew around him a circle of 
devoted friends whose allegiance nothing could 
weaken. With this surrounding he reared the 
Federal party. Leading a minority, with indomi- 
table energy, he, for twelve years, made his party 
dominant, and placed the infant nation fairly on the 
road to prosperity and greatness. 

When Seward attained the leadership of his party, 
the country was in scarcely less need. The evils 



^i Alexander Hamilton 

foreseen by Hamilton were slowly but surely ap- 
proaching. What he had called " the centripetal 
force " in the government was weakening, and the 
doctrine of his old political enemy was rapidly gain- 
ing ground. The time had come for action, and 
with it came the leader. With cautious deliberation 
he surveyed the ground, saw the proper course, and 
steadfastly pursued it. The awful question of slavery 
loomed up ; he met it fairly and squarely. His 
party became unpopular ; but he worked on. At 
last he was successful ; and when the party, in its 
triumph, found it necessary to place the wreath of 
victory upon the brow of a "younger soldier in the 
great cause," without faltering, failing in no trust, 
he still led his party. 

Both Hamilton and Seward were great leaders ; 
but as the men and their labors, so their methods of 
work were different. Celtic dread of oppression and 
love for the lowly made Seward a leader of the 
people. The gallant and intrepid aristocrat, Hamil- 
ton, was a leader of leaders. At the bar, in the 
convention or in the cabinet, Hamilton was always 
the soldier, fiery, passionate, irresistible ; Seward 
was the citizen, able, calm, convincing. In the 
middle ages, Hamilton would have been the peer- 
less knight ; Seward would have been the staunch 
burgher of a free city. 

When Hamilton, in the Convention, found him- 
self without a supporter, he told his opponents they 
were wrong, — radically and fundamentally wrong. 
Then with cogent argument and persuasive elo- 
quence he brought them over, one by one, to his 



And William H. Seward. 93 

side. When Seward, in the Senate-chamber, was 
the only Senator who maintained " fully and fairly 
the doctrine of the issue of slavery," distinguished 
on the one hand from compromise, and on the other 
from rabid abolitionism, he told the other Senators 
that they were, in the main, right ; but that they 
were not taking the right road to accomplish their 
object. Then carefully and deliberately he showed 
them the right way, till at last he had his reward 
as leader of the Senate. 

Hamilton had force, while Seward had tact. 
Hamilton, by sheer power, led men in spite of 
themselves. He marked out the path to be fol- 
lowed and drew others to it. A clear reasoner, 
seeing plainly the path, and arguing rightly from 
it, his path was, perhaps, the true one ; but it was 
his path, not the party's. He was the leader; his 
party followed. Seward, on the other hand, found 
the people's path ; that to which the strong intelli- 
gence of the nation drifted. There were two 
divergent lines of national policy. A conflict was 
inevitable. Both could not go on. Thoughtfully 
he weighed the two ; then deciding which one was 
to him best and right, he threw himself upon that, 
and led the people in their path. 

Hamilton was a leader from above and without 
the people ; Seward was from among them and on 
a level with them. Hamilton said, " I know where 
you ought to go. Come on. This is the way. 
Follow me." Seward said, " I know where you 
wish to go. I can show you the right way. Come 
with me." The one was a leader ; the other a guide. 



94 Alexander Hamilton. 

When Hamilton died, his life breaking off in the 
midst "like some half-told tale, amid tears and 
blood," the Federal party was practically broken. 
Upon the death of the leader, the party went each 
his own way. But when Seward died, the party 
kept right on ; it was their path in which they were 
walking, and they had simply to find another guide. 

Hamilton realized the need of his time, but he 
revered precedent and tradition ; he took the past 
and strove to make the present and future fit it. 
Seward honored the lessons of the past but analyzed 
the present ; used the past to aid in that analysis, 
and then from the present, seen in the light of the 
past, strove to forecast the future, Hamilton stood 
upon the past, drawing the present to him ; Seward 
stood upon the present, measuring it by the past. 

As statesmen Hamilton was brilliant, Seward was 
sure ; the one eloquent, the other able. The former 
had genius ; the latter had talent. With Hamil- 
ton patriotism was a sentiment, an enthusiastic pas- 
sion ; with Seward it was a principle as well as 
love. With Hamilton it was the supreme law; 
with Seward it was a law under a " higher law." 

Each acted well his part ; one was the counselor 
of Washington, the other of Lincoln ; and to their 
counsel and leadership is largely due the security of 
our institutions. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LOUIS 
ADOLPHE THIERS. 

BY CHARLES S. STONE, '78. 




|j|HE history of a nation is the lives of 
its great men ; theirs is the essence of 
those innumerable biographies which 
make up the records of the past. The 
story of a great life is something more 
than a study of character and incident ; 
it is a study of the times in which the 
great man h'ved, and of the movements in which he 
took part. The Hves of rulers and statesmen and the 
reformers of the church are our civil and religious 
history ; and the lives of the masters are the history of 
art. The annals of France's brightest, proudest years 
are found in the life of one great captain, and the his- 
tory of the Reformation is but a narrative of the 
lives and labors of Luther, Knox, and Zwingle. So 
in the story of the lives of Hamilton and Thiers, we 
may study the times in which they lived. The life 
of one tells of the formation and early history of a 
republic, and with the other we are carried through 
a stormy half-century of French reactions. 

95 



96 Alexander Hamilton 

Reaching manhood at the breaking out of the 
Revolution, Hamilton entered ardently and sincerely 
into the cause of his adopted country; and from his 
address before the patriots of New York, through 
the eight years of strife and conflict and the score 
more of reconstruction, down to that fatal July 
morning, his career was interwoven with the history 
of the nation. Springing from the lower ranks of 
society, Thiers raised himself, by the vigor of his 
intellect, to the very highest. Whether as minister 
or as leader of the opposition, around him more than 
any other centres the last half-century of French and 
European politics. No revolution was effected, no 
restoration accomplished, no popular movement un- 
dertaken in which he was not the central figure. 

Hamilton's statesmanship was constructive. No 
mean part was his in the Revolutionary struggle. 
But after the conflict, in the reaction, when the 
States were divided by faction, jealousy, and selfish 
interest ; when the labor of years bid fair to be 
thrown away, and a threatening gloom had settled 
over the road to national honor ; when Washington, 
who was not prone to be despondent, said, " To be 
more exposed in the eyes of the world, and more 
contemptible than we already are, is hardly pos- 
sible " ; then Hamilton displayed his constructive 
genius and masterly statesmanship. 

The history of the early years of the Confedera- 
tion is a narrative of blunders and disasters, the 
blind and the ignorant fighting for the leadership. 
The Continental currency had become a byword for 
all that is worthless, and the finances were pitifully 



And Louis Adolphe Thiers. 97 

involved ; Congress was fading into a mere name and 
a shadow of a shade ; sectional bitterness alienated 
the States, threatening to divide them into com- 
monwealths independent, if not as hostile, ag, Italian 
principalities and German states; we may indeed be 
said to have " reached the last stage of humiliation," 
for those disastrous blunders and hopeless dissen- 
sions were greeted in European courts with all the 
exultations over a prophecy fulfilled. 

From this melancholy chaos, through Hamilton's 
endeavors, a coinage was established, a revenue sys- 
tem inaugurated, an army and navy organized, a 
national bank instituted, and commercial treaties 
arranged ; and as Guizot, with his clear insight, has 
observed, there is not in the Constitution an element 
of order, of force, or of duration which he has not 
contributed to introduce into it and caused to pre- 
dominate. This great work he followed up by 
training the thinkers of the North, through the 
influence of the " Federalist," in political integrity, 
and inspiring respect for law and faith in the central 
government. 

Thiers began his political career as the defender 
of revolutionary governments. " I am of the party 
of the revolution in Europe," he said. " I shall do 
all that I can to keep it in the hands of the moderate 
party, but if it should pass into the hands of a party 
not moderate, I shall not abandon the cause of the 
revolution. I shall be always of the party of the 
revolution " ; and here lay his real strength. As 
leader of the opposition he was a power dreaded by 
kings, loved by people. But in France office is 



98 Alexander Hamilton 

everything ; Thiers sought office. He proved un- 
faithful to his revolutionary principles, unfaithful to 
the lowly rank from which he sprang. 

Statesmanship is of as many kinds as there are 
statesmen, yet statesmen may be separated into two 
distinct classes. One, like Machiavel's Prince, " seeks 
to dethrone the Almighty and exalt the devil " ; 
casts off morals, lays aside conscience as inconvenient 
to great undertakings ; blots out the line between 
truth and dissimulation, between honor and treachery 
as a cramp to vigorous action ; deceives friends, 
betrays enemies ; and banishes all scruples, all grati- 
tude, all honor, in attaining to the one great end of 
politics, — success. 

This principle, or rather absence of principle, has 
ever marked the policy of France. Selfish, grasping, 
careless of all but her own aggrandizement, her 
ideas of national greatness is but national self-seek- 
ing. And Thiers was a characteristic Frenchman. 
He who once proposed a crusade to restore liberty 
to oppressed nations, afterwards " desired " the dis- 
memberment of Italy, the division of Germany, and 
demanded that all the world should bow the knee to 
France. 

Thiers passed through every conceivable variety 
of opinion, shifting his belief for every changing 
shade of popular impulse and caprice. As the revo- 
lutionary journalist of '30 he is the first to resist 
encroachments upon the freedom of the press, and 
as the minister of '35 he enforces, with vigor, the 
laws against free speech ; to-day a liberal, to-morrow 
a conservative, a republican, a monarchist, the bitter 



And Louis Adolphe Thiers. 99 

enemy of socialism and its defender by turns ; a 
determined opponent of personal governments, the 
personal governments of Louis Philippe and Louis 
Bonaparte were raised upon his shoulders, and when 
he came to power in '71 the world had not seen so 
personal a ruler since the first Napoleon. Thiers 
forgot that " principles make revolutions and revo- 
lutionists," forgot that " principles found monarchies, 
aristocracies, and republics," forgot that " principles 
govern the world." Whatever impeded triumph, 
Thiers, and France, though it be the majesty of 
justice, right, and honor, was thrust aside without 
scruple, apparently without regret. 

The other kind of statesmanship has its ideal in 
the conscience, and is the outgrowth of a pure and 
honest patriotism, and its fruits are the fruits of 
righteousness, the blessing and bettering of man- 
kind. Such was the statesmanship of Marin, strug- 
gling for the honorable liberty of Venice; of William 
of Nassau, pious and firm, lifting the oppressed 
Netherlands to a place among the powers of Europe ; 
of Washington, refusing the offered crown, satisfied 
and happy to grow old and dim of eye while fighting 
his country's battles; the statesmanship of Hamil- 
ton, relinquishing profession, wealth, and honor for a 
public service barren of promise, giving up his life 
because he felt that only by conforming to popu- 
lar prejudice could he be of further service to his 
country. 

" Writers, orators, publicists are only great when 
they connect their whole lives into stars which 
revolve around a grand idea. When they become 



lOO 



Alexander Hamilton. 



the centre of their own universe, when they value 
pohtics only for the lustre reflected upon them- 
selves, and ideas merely because of the brilliance 
they impart, then they lose the right to be public 
teachers, they forget the service of humanity, which 
is their only glory, their only pledge of immor- 
tality." 

Principles govern the world ; he who seeks to rule 
without them will find his life a hopeless, barren 
task. 





THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



BY CHARLES E. DE WITT, '79. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON and Aaron 
Burr were political opponents and 
party leaders. Both were men of 
brilliant minds, elegant manners, and 
high ability. The former was a patriot 
and a statesman. The latter was " a 
dangerous man " in the Republic. 
When Aaron Burr was nominated for governor of 
New York, Hamilton opposed his success. Burr's 
defeat at the polls culminated their long hostility. 
The scene at Weehawken followed. Hamilton per- 
ished, and his relentless enemy had his revenge. 

The correspondence leading to the encounter re- 
veals the spirit of the parties. The aggressor was 
determined and implacable. His victim reluctantly 
obeyed the dictates of the so-called code of honor. 
General Hamilton had spoken of his rival as " one 
who ought not to be intrusted with the reins of 
government." An explanation was demanded. 
Hamilton considered it neither his duty to explain 



I02 The Death of 

nor disavow an honest opinion. In loyalty to his 
commonwealth, he had expressed his deliberate 
judgment upon the character of one who aspired to 
be its governor, and he could not acknowledge his 
accountability to a disappointed politician. 

On June 27, 1804, the correspondence ended with 
a challenge and its acceptance. He who had risked 
life for his country was above the imputation of 
cowardice. But Hamilton shrank from this encoun- 
ter. He abhorred a duel from principle, and his 
duty to live for friends, family, and State conflicted 
with the demands of what his contemporaries called 
the honor of a gentleman. Unwillingly and doubt- 
ingly he yielded to the latter. 

July II was fixed for the meeting. At the dinner 
of the Society of the Cincinnati, on July 4, Hamilton 
last appeared in public. The intervening days were 
spent in private preparations. He felt a premoni- 
tion of his doom. The seal of death was upon him, 
and like one who stood upon the sands of the 
Roman amphitheater, he seemed to say to those 
about him, " I, about to die, salute you." 

On the morning of the fatal day, the sun looked 
over the Harlem hills upon the New Jersey shore 
bright and beautiful. Heaven seemed to smile 
upon the deed. Upon Weehawken Heights, oppo- 
site Manhattan Island, the parties met. Ten paces 
were measured. Positions were chosen ; the word 
given. The result the world knows. Burr turned 
from the field with a look of mingled pleasure and 
regret, Hamilton had fallen without the intention 
or attempt to use his fire. 



Alexander Hamilton. 103 

The few remaining hours of this noble life were 
passed in terrible torture, and in heroic efforts to 
comfort his despairing family. " Remember you are 
a Christian," were his last words to his wife; and 
armed with a simple, trusting faith, he faced and 
conquered the last great enemy. 

On July 14, 1804, were paid the last honors to the 
fallen statesman. The city of New York seemed 
one great household stricken with anguish for the 
loss of its dearest member. With solemn toll of 
church bells, and heavy boom of minute-guns, and 
words of honest eulogy, to which every heart said 
a sincere "Amen," they laid him to rest in the 
God's acre of Trinity Church ; and there amidst the 
busy hum of the great city, he sleeps within hearing 
of the heart-throbs of that country which so loved 
him, because he first loved and served her. 

The death of Alexander Hamilton was a loss to ' 
our government ; its manner, a gain to society. 

Hamilton was a Federalist, a conservative, per- 
haps an aristocrat. His political policy was to 
strengthen the general government, to regulate 
carefully suffrage. A successful sovereign must 
have wisdom to legislate, virtue to administer, and 
power to execute. In the United States, sover- 
eignty rests with the voters. The voters must be 
selected with regard to this responsibility. In this 
syllogism is an epitome of Hamilton's statesman- 
ship. By the delicate touch of his skilful fingers 
the balance-wheel of Federal control was fitted 
to the dangerous engine of democracy ; restraints 
were put upon the power of the demagogue, and 



164 ^^ Death of 

checks applied to the reckless enthusiasm of popular 
assemblages. 

In the first years of this century appeared within 
our borders that monster, which to-day has grown 
into threatening proportions, which has laid its 
polluting touch upon the politics of our great cities, 
and is demoralizing the legislation of our whole 
land. I mean the evil influence over the passions 
of the ignorant and vicious which extensive suffrage 
gives to self-seeking politicians. That danger which 
De Tocqueville feared, and Lord Macaulay prophe- 
sied would be our ruin. Hamilton fought this evil 
in constitutional conventions and political contests ; 
and, in a longer life, his ripe wisdom and lofty char- 
acter would have done good battle in the same 
righteous cause. The loss of his conservative in- 
fluence was a severe calamity to our government. 

When we regard the effect upon society of this 
sad event, we find a decided benefit. It was the 
death-blow to the custom of duelling. When courts 
of law were in their infancy, the duel was a species 
of judicial trial. Men in difference resorted to single 
combat in the belief that God would give the strong 
arm to him who had the just cause. Tennyson's 
Sir Galahad expresses the popular belief of those 
days, 

" My strength is as the strength of ten, 
Because my heart is pure." 

The true heart was believed always to be behind the 
strong lance, and the just cause to be clothed with 
physical power and courage. He who would not 



Alexander Hamilton. 105 

fight was not only thought to be, but ahnost univer- 
sally was, a coward and a knave. The victor, amidst 
the clash of arms, was the hero, the godlike, the only 
honorable. But the later civilization introduced the 
rule of mind. Courts banished tournaments. The 
judicial ermine and the famous jury-box usurped 
the authority of balconies of smiling and approving 
beauty, and the duel, once an honored adjunct of a 
younger civilization, sank to the level of murder. 

In 1804 this lesson of modern history was not fully 
learned. But when it was blazoned before the eyes 
of a horrified nation, written in the blood of Alexan- 
der Hamilton, the argument against the morality of 
the duel became awful and convincing proof. Among 
roving knights of the twelfth century Aaron Burr 
would have held a high place ; among gentlemen of 
the nineteenth, he was a rufifian. 

Let us not too harshly censure Hamilton for 
accepting the challenge. A refusal would have 
branded him a coward. Was his act a weakness, a 
fear of a perverted public opinion ? Judge him not 
thus, O man of to-day, unless you can stand before 
the bar of your own conscience and declare your 
emancipation from the slavery of contemporary 
public opinion. 

As a victim to a custom which had survived its 
reason and its excuse, died America's greatest legis- 
lator. He was a power in two revolutions, one 
political, the other social. Had he lived longer, our 
government would have been more heavily in his 
debt. Had he died differently, society would owe 
him less. In his life, he was a guide to the young 



1 06 The Death of Alexander Ha7nilto7i. 

Republic, which was falling into line to join the 
march of nations. In his death, men learned to strip 
a crime of the gloss of gentility and give it its place 
in the catalogue of heinous sins. 

When Aaron Burr drank so deeply that sweet cup 
of revenge, the life-work of Alexander Hamilton was 
ended ; but at the altar of this costly sacrifice was 
emphasized the commandment, " Thou shalt not 
kill " ; and the duel, as the trial of a gentleman's 
honor, received its sentence of doom. 




^-(i^^:>^Lj^^<^ 



THE POLITICAL DOCTRINES OF ALEXANDER 

HAMILTON IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT 

AMERICAN HISTORY. 

BY PHILIP A. LAING, 'So. 




[HE political history of America has wit- 
nessed the ascendency of two oppos- 
ing; doctrines. The earliest advocate 
of home rule and limited executive 
power was Thomas Jefferson. He 
held that danger to a free people lies 
in centralized administration. Every 
step in the direction of additional authority to the 
national government he looked upon with anxiety. 
Opposed to him was Alexander Hamilton, leader of 
the Federal party and rightly called the " Founder 
of the American States in Empire." 

The struggle which framed the Constitution and 
merged the Confederation into a nation brought 
these opposing doctrines and their advocates promi- 
nently into view. In that struggle Hamilton was 
preeminently conspicuous ; and when it closed he 
was well fitted to administer, and shape the policy of 
the government which he had helped to form. He 

107 



io8 The Political Doctrines of 

at once became the idol of his party and the trusted 
counselor of Washington. He was the champion of 
national over State supremacy, the advocate of a 
protective tariff, and was thoroughly conversant with 
the principles of political economy. 

Suffering from the losses of a protracted war, with- 
out friends or credit abroad, her currency depreciated, 
her people half-hearted in allegiance, upon the elec- 
tion of Washington the Republic sorely needed a 
statesman able to grapple with great problems of 
finance. Depreciated paper money had destroyed 
confidence, disturbed prices, and business was stag- 
nated. Every financial scheme proposed met vigor- 
ous opposition. The need of the hour was a stable 
medium of exchange. To pay the national and 
State debts was impossible. To drift was ruin ; and 
every remedy devised was, in the minds of many, 
but another step toward utter financial ruin. At 
such a time Alexander Hamilton was made Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. And such was the condition 
of the country when he originated that system of 
finance which became the wonder and admiration of 
the world. 

His first plans were to fund the national debt so 
that its securities should in part answer the purposes 
of money; to increase the duties on imported arti- 
cles ; and to establish a national bank. The dififi- 
culties encountered were great. Strong prejudices 
were prevalent against every form of banking. Half 
of the people were bitterly opposed to an increased 
tariff, and the sentiment was everyday growing that 
the only hope for the country was repudiation. The 



Alexander Hamilton. 109 

proposition to assume the State debts met with 
determined opposition. But mercenary interests 
were not permitted to stain national honor. The 
national debts, foreign and domestic, were ad- 
mitted ; the State debts assumed, and the securi- 
ties given were made to answer the purposes of 
money. This was Hamilton's " grand triumph," and 
" looking back from this period in the history of the 
country upon the developments which succeeded it 
must appear both fortunate and deserved." Spurn- 
ing repudiation, the nation vindicated her honor at 
home and abroad. 

The prominent features of the national bank, 
chartered upon the plan which Hamilton proposed 
and which received its death-blow under Jackson, are 
identical with those of the system revised under Lin- 
coln and which still continues in existence. Hamil- 
ton favored a national bank because its issues are 
regulated by the demands of business. It is plastic. 
Unlike those of the government its issues are with- 
drawn when the need for them has ceased. The 
bank originated by Hamilton was exclusively con- 
trolled by its stockholders. The government reserved 
the right to ascertain only its general condition. 
Under our present system the circulation is secured 
by a deposit of government bonds. Not wholly 
unlike this feature was the provision of Hamilton's 
bank which required three quarters of the subscrip- 
tions to be receivable in six per cent, certificates of 
the national debt. Hamilton advocated a vigorous 
administration and a united people, — united by com- 
mon interests, a common language, and a common 



1 1 o The Political Doctrines of 

medium of exchange. To secure the universal 
acceptance of its issues, he favored the supervision of 
the bank by the government. To insure ef^ciency of 
management, he enlisted the experience of business 
life and the stimulus of private interests. 

Hamilton was an advocate of a protective tariff. 
The resources of the country were then undeveloped, 
manufactured goods were procured abroad, and Eng- 
land was then as pronounced for protection as she 
now is for free trade. In view of these facts Hamil- 
ton held that protection was a necessity. In later 
times Clay and Greeley have rallied powerful parties 
clamorous in advocacy of the same policy advanced 
by the leader of the Federalists. 

A national banking system, a protective tariff, and 
national supremacy were the political doctrines of 
Alexander Hamilton, — fundamental principles of 
government. Put to the test when all Europe was 
disturbed and when the American people were little 
used to republican ideas, they have extended their 
influence over a full century of our history and to-day 
are recognized as living and vital principles. Among 
financial policies none finds greater favor among 
intelligent business men than the national bank. Its 
issues are reliable and have the public confidence. It 
has been tested in important epochs of our history. 
By its influence the financial status of the country at 
the close of the Revolution was improved and pros- 
perity to commercial interests assured. Again at 
the close of the Rebellion, in spite of the disastrous 
effect of the greenback issues which tended to destroy 
confidence in every form of money, the people still 



Alexander Hamilton. 1 1 1 

believed in the national bank ; and now under the 
revived condition of business it challenges the admi- 
ration of all. Judged in the light of recent Ameri- 
can history Hamilton's system of banking is a great 
success. A hundred years of the most varied and 
trying experience have developed nothing better. 

Within the last half-century the policy of protec- 
tion has doubtless been pushed too far. The pro- 
tection which in former times enabled the country 
to develop its resources has more recently helped to 
enhance the wealth of powerful corporations at the 
expense of the laboring and consuming classes. But 
if a wise judgment does not now approve of the sys- 
tem it surely recognizes the wisdom which dictated 
such a policy during our early history. 

The political doctrines of Hamilton sprang from 
his belief in the necessity of national unity. This 
belief was shown in his advocacy of national suprem- 
acy and a liberal construction of the Constitution. 
Unchecked by the conservative influence of Jeffer- 
son and his party, Hamilton would have delegated 
dangerous powers to the general government. The 
space which separates Hamilton's ideal of a republic 
and an actual empire is not very great. Yet the 
doctrine of JefTerson was perhaps still more danger- 
ous. In later times we have seen how this later 
doctrine, pushed to extremes by Calhoun, ended in 
secession. If the gravest result of the Rebellion was 
the injury suffered by the rights of States, the 
grandest result of that struggle was the triumph of 
national supremacy. 

The political doctrines of Hamilton still exert a 



I 12 



Political Doctrines. 



potent influence upon the country. They are deep- 
rooted in our national life. In Hamilton Talleyrand 
recognized one whose " comprehensive and penetrat- 
ing intellect had pierced through and through the 
very substance of the politics of Europe." Hamil- 
ton's doctrines were the fruit of a deep and thorough 
study of the science of government. During our 
rapid advance in wealth and influence they have 
shown the adaptive power which belongs to princi- 
ples rather than expedients. Their effect has been 
far-reaching and permanent, and the memory of their 
author shall be as lasting as the Union which he 
helped to form. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THE TARIFF 
QUESTION. 

BY HARMON J. BLISS, '8i. 




RATIONAL policies are largely the crea- 
tion of individuals. Only through the 
master minds of a nation are popular 
aims realized. For centuries the Ger- 
man people had longed for a complete 
union in government, but not until the 
statesmanship of Bismarck linked the 
states in one supreme nationality was their ideal 
realized. A thirst for military glory has ever been 
characteristic of the French people, but they waited 
the coming of Napoleon to make Europe their battle- 
field. A love of freedom had glowed for ages in the 
breast of Italy, but liberty was not secured until 
Cavour directed her diplomacy and guided the arms 
of her soldier-king. 

In securing the adoption of the Constitution, 
Alexander Hamilton, in America, gave to his country 
the Union which Bismarck has given Germany, the 
independence which Cavour insured to Italy, and a 
power more permanently great than the blood-bought 
empire of Napoleon. Hamilton crystallized the best 
8 113 



114 Alexander Hamilton 

political thought of ages, to shape with it the struc- 
ture of our government. Chiefly by his master 
statesmanship a crumbling confederacy was bound 
together under a central power, and made to assume 
its rightful place among the foremost nations of the 
world. While the dogma of State rights brought 
us to the brink of commercial and political ruin, the 
triumph of Hamilton's doctrine of a strong Federal 
Union has made us a prosperous and powerful people. 
Defended by the eloquence of Webster, triumphing 
with the surrender of Lee, the Federal Union will 
insure the liberties of coming generations, and keep 
forever green the memory of its author. 

But the fame of Hamilton does not rest alone on 
his advocacy of a strong and enduring Union. As 
the earliest advocate of a high protective tariff, his 
name is identified with a question which demands 
for its solution the keenest intellect of the age. On 
this question Hamilton took no uncertain ground. 
He saw the impossibility of American capital, com- 
paratively small and drawing a high rate of interest, 
battling even-handed with cheap and abundant 
British capital. Competition with British manu- 
facturers was then, as it is now, only possible on two 
conditions, — first, capital at an equally low rate of 
interest; second, equally cheap labor. The first was 
an acknowledged impossibility. The attainment of 
the second no patriot could desire, for no patriot 
could wish the working classes of our country to be 
reduced to the poverty of the European laborer. 
Hamilton desired, by securing to the laborer ade- 
quate wages, to enable him to live in comfort, and 



And the Tari^ Question. 115 

enjoy the advantages of just compensation. No 
statesman more fully deserves the gratitude of the 
laboring classes. Directly opposed in their attitude 
toward labor, are the advocates of free trade. These 
advocates in Europe, the great English capitalists, 
have reduced the laborer to a mere machine, almost 
as really owned by them as the ponderous looms 
which weave the fabric of their wealth. It is a truth 
recognized even by conservative Englishmen, that 
their statesmen have almost utterly disregarded the 
welfare of the laborer. The eloquent Ruskin says, 
" Though England is deafened with spinning-wheels, 
her people have not clothes ; though she is black 
with digging of fuel, they die of cold ; and though 
she has sold her soul for grain, they die of hunger." 
Hamilton advocated the tariff as favorable to na- 
tional interests. He saw that only by the creation of 
capital through manufactures could the nation's nat- 
ural wealth and commercial enterprise be developed. 
He saw that only through an increased population, 
sustained by manufactures, could a home market for 
agricultural products be secured. Destroy this market, 
and the farmer is left to compete for an European 
one, with the products of the almost servile labor 
of Russia. While Hamilton upheld protection for 
the nation's interest. Southern leaders have favored 
free trade as a sectional advantage, and as opposed 
to the interests of the manufacturer and the farmer. 
The South has always desired free trade, and for one 
reason only, — her own supposed benefit. No regard 
for the national welfare has ever been shown by 
Southern statesmen in their labors for immediate 



1 1 6 Alexander Hamilton 

sectional advantage. They have failed to see that 
were the great heart of the nation still, the life-blood 
of prosperity would stagnate in every artery. They 
have been slow to understand what political economy 
regards as axiomatic, that no nation exclusively agri- 
cultural can prosper, and that the protective system 
which benefits the North is the great need of the 
South. The weakness of a nation exclusively agri- 
cultural is exemplified by Ireland. Ireland is to-day 
suffering more from a lack of diversified industries 
than from land tenure or rack-rent. Hamilton's sys- 
tem of protection would give Ireland wealth not de- 
rived from tiie soil, and free her people from entire 
dependence upon the landowner. 

Through the power given by the fostering in- 
fluence of the protective system, our nation has 
expanded from a border of States fringing the 
Atlantic, to a broad commonwealth spanning the 
continent. Deriving, in the early period of our 
history, almost our entire wealth from the pursuit 
of agriculture, by the influence of the same system, 
there is scarcely an industry or source of opulence 
known to man, which is not forced to contribute to 
the nation's prosperity. Yet this prosperity maybe 
but the morning star, heralding a dawn of national 
greatness whose splendor shall surpass the expecta- 
tion of the most sanguine. Let us then, as Ameri- 
cans, guard well our national policy ; for while, using 
the accumulated wisdom of the past, we may realize 
the most golden dreams of the patriot, we may by 
folly or incompetence lose the heritage of power, 
and retrograde to weakness and obscurity. 



And the Tariff Question. 1 1 7 

The highest encomiums which can be bestowed 
upon the genius and sagacity of Hamilton are fur- 
nished by the evidences of happiness and progress 
which we see throughout the land. The statues of 
the illustrious Romans were placed in the Pantheon, 
and their names linked with those of the gods above. 
The memory of England's departed great men is 
enshrined within the walls of Westminster Abbey. 
To Hamilton himself, in the city whose commercial 
supremacy he did so much to enhance, a statue has 
been erected ; but surpassing in dignity all other 
memorials, the power of the American Republic is 
the grandest monument to the memory of the de- 
fender of American industries, and the " Founder of 
the American States in Empire." 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND BENJAMIN 
DISRAELI. 




BY HERBERT H. PARSONS, '82. 

|EPARATED by race, religion, poli- 
tics, country, age ; widely different 
in habits of thought and method of 
work ; actuated by motives as far 
removed as pole from pole, Alexander 
Hamilton and Benjamin Disraeli pre- 
sent a striking contrast. 
Born of Scottish and Huguenot parents, Hamilton 
united in himself the sincerity and intellectual vigor 
of the sturdy Scot with French grace and versatility. 
His mental powers developed with remarkable rapid- 
ity. But the genius, though marvelously precocious, 
was full-rounded and symmetrical. 

At fourteen he is in charge of his employer's entire 
business. Two years later find him a candidate for 
admission to Columbia College. Not till then does 
he, a foreigner by birth and a loyalist by education, 
begin to appreciate the excited feelings of the colo- 
nists as they fret under the yoke of British rule. 
Amid the growing resentment of the colonists and 

118 



Benjamin Disraeli. 1 1 9 

the deepening hostility of the British, his decisive 
nature can occupy no natural ground. Without re- 
serve he casts his lot with the struggling nation in 
whose fortune and destiny he is to play so prominent 
a part. Thenceforth his life became the history of 
the infant Republic. 

First, we see him as the slender lad of seventeen 
" at the great meeting in the fields " swaying the 
mighty multitude by his resistless logic and marvel- 
ous eloquence ; then as the cloistered student pre- 
paring those masterly papers, now famous as the 
" Answers to a Westchester Farmer." With the be- 
ginning of the Revolution we see him perfecting 
himself in the theory and art of war ; we go with 
him into the heat and roar of battle ; we note his 
dauntless courage and military skill ; we see him pro- 
moted ; we see the boy of twenty years the trusted 
counselor of Washington ; we listen with admiration 
to his words of wisdom ; we see him as he starts on 
many a delicate and perilous mission ; we watch his 
course through the four long troubled years of war. 
We see him forecasting the result, prophesying 
harder problems in government and finance yet to 
come, and preparing himself to meet them. We are 
with him as he struggles with ignorance, prejudice, 
and unreasoning opposition. We see him the edu- 
cator of the people, lifting them to a higher plane by 
the attractive power of his own marvelous intellect. 
We see him the object of envy, hatred, and revenge. 
We see him emerge unharmed from the cruel darts 
of slander and the poisoned shafts of malice. We 
struggle with him in his magnificent fight for a con- 



1 2 o A lexander Ha in iltoit 

stitution and a national government. We stand by 
him as he " forges the links and welds the chain " 
which shall bind in one indissoluble Union the war- 
ring States. We share his triumph and glory when 
liberty is rescued from license, peace takes the place 
of turmoil, and law and order are triumphant over 
anarchy and disunion. We see him at the sacrifice 
of private interests, taking upon himself a public 
trust whose only reward shall be the suspicion of 
friends and the malignant opposition of enemies. 
We see a state in bankruptcy, with no credit at 
home or abroad, cut off from sound commercial re- 
lations with foreign countries, with trade paralyzed 
and industries dead, at the vivifying touch of his 
matchless genius suddenly taking on new life and 
assuming her proper place among the nations of the 
earth. Out of adversity, poverty, and universal 
despair we see him building up a financial system 
which shall not only stand the test of peaceful years 
but shall tide us safely over the perilous billows of 
civil war. We see the great financier whose ability 
had made a whole country rich and prosperous, lay- 
ing down his public trust because of private poverty. 
We behold him as America's greatest lawyer, plead- 
ing the cause of a poor woman. With the enraptured 
jury and the admiring judge, we feel the charm and 
potent spell of his impassioned appeals and con- 
vincing argument. Again we see him the object of 
partisan passion and personal hatred. Passion turns 
to frenzy, hatred to revenge. He whom slander 
could not injure nor threats silence, falls a victim to 
Burr's deadly bullet. We watch him during his last 



And Benjamin Disraeli. 1 2 1 

hours as hope alternates with fear ; we look upon 
the stricken nation and startled world ; we see his 
great spirit take its flight, and his mighty work is 
ended. 

Benjamin Disraeli's life reads like a romance. 
Coming into the world unknown to fame, without 
influential connections, in a land of caste and preju- 
dices, and the son of a Jew, the outlook seems in- 
deed gloomy. To Disraeli's hopeful, dauntless spirit, 
however, all things are possible. Even in youth 
with prophetic eye he sees the glory of the coming 
years. He believes in his race, his country, and his 
own great destiny. " Power is the end to be at- 
tained, ambition the force that impels." Never once 
in all the years of political strife and personal con- 
flict does he lose sight of his grand life object. All 
things are made subservient to this ruling passion. 
Conviction, consistency, and even conscience are 
sacrificed on the altar of inordinate ambition. All 
other things are but stepping-stones in his upward 
path. The guiding principle of his life is summed 
up in the angel's exhortation to Tancred, " Fear not, 
faint not, falter not, obey the impulse of thine own 
spirit and find a ready instrument in every human 
being." Undismayed by failure he is never unduly 
elated by success. Four times defeated in his efforts 
for political power, he presents himself a fifth time 
for the suffrages of the people. Elected member of 
England's House of Commons, he is the subject of 
ridicule, scorn, and foolish race prejudice. Bold 
even to rashness, his first speech is an attack upon 
Ireland's great national hero. Laughter, derision, 



12 2 A lexa ndcr Ha in ilton 

and hisses are the result of his audacity ; cool, 
crafty, farseeing he fights on. He sees men of every 
class finally bending to his indomitable will. He 
encourages the faint-hearted, strengthens the weak, 
flatters the vain, dazzles the young. He throws his 
opponents into contempt by his wondrous wit, bit- 
ing sarcasm, and bitter taunts. Steadily he pushes 
on in his path to power. A cabinet position is 
offered and accepted. Thrice Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, he is still looking upward. Now the 
acknowledged leader of the Tories, he keeps his life 
policy of " waiting and watching." With the resig- 
nation of Lord Derby in '68 comes Disraeli's oppor- 
tunity, and the wildest dreams of his youth are 
realized. He stands upon the dizzy heights of 
power to which a less daring spirit would never have 
aspired. 

Mark the mighty changes of that life ! He who 
began life as the friend of the poor, the champion of 
the people, and the advocate of reform, is now the 
leader of the aristocracy. The Whig of twenty 
becomes the Tory chief. The author of " Vivian 
Grey" is ranked with Bulwer, Thackeray, and Dick- 
ens. The ridiculed, hissed, detested Jew is premier 
of England. 

Hamilton and Disraeli ! The statesman and the 
politician ! The son of patient toil, and the favored 
child of chance. Both were men of unquestioned 
talents. Hamilton's genius was practical, receptive, 
adaptive, creative ; that of Disraeli, brilliant, im- 
aginative, erratic, paradoxical. The weapons of one 
were logic, argument, appeals to man's higher na- 



And Benjamin Disraeli. 1 23 

ture; those of the other, wit, sarcasm, appeals to the 
imagination. The one convinced, the other dazzled. 
Each the head of a great party, the one led by the 
force of preeminent ability, the other by flattery, 
promises, taunts, and threats. 

Hamilton believed that work alone conquers. Dis- 
raeli had implicit faith in the " star of destiny." 
Thoroughness, knowledge of details, complete mas- 
tery of every subject was the secret of the former's 
success ; an intense and unwavering" conviction of 
his " great future " was the ever impelling incentive 
of the latter. 

Both were ambitious, but their ambition was 
widely unlike. Hamilton was ambitious that the 
nation might become grand and glorious ; Disraeli, 
that his own name might become the synonym for 
greatness and power. " Country " was the ever 
present thought in the mind of one ; " self," the 
all-predominating idea of the other. Eternal prin- 
ciples of truth and justice were the guides of Hamil- 
ton's conduct ; expediency, the rule of Disraeli's 
actions. The one was a moulder of public thought, 
the other a follower. Hamilton based all legislation 
on the " great laws of nature." Disraeli shaped his 
measures to match the ever-varying shades of fitful 
public sentiment. 

The measure of a man should be the influence 
which he leaves behind him. Tried by such a stand- 
ard, the contrast between the two becomes even 
more marked. The waning splendor of Disraeli's 
genius pales before the enduring glory of Hamil- 
ton's. Hamilton is lost in the grandeur of his work, 



T 24 . Alexander Hamilton. 

while in Disraeli's life the man himself is continually 
before the mind. The life of Hamilton is knit with 
that of his country. His lasting monument must be 
the growing greatness of that nation whose arms he 
did so much to make victorious, whose government 
he framed, whose credit he restored, whose policy 
he shaped, and whose name he made respected in 
I all the hostile courts of Europe. Disraeli must be 
remembered chiefly as the author of a brilliant for- 
eign policy which, whether born of pride and glory 
or of sound statesmanship, time must still decide. 
The one labored for all time, the other for temporary 
power. 

But one year in his grave, Disraeli's influence is 
rapidly passing away, while Hamilton's great work 
is calling forth increasing admiration and his fame 
shines with an added luster with every passing year. 
The character of the latter will live as an inspiration 
to unselfish effort and lofty patriotism, that of the 
other as an example of the power of a determined 
will when coupled with a grand, all-ruling passion. 




THE POLITICAL SERVICES OF ALEXANDER 
HAMILTON AND DANIEL WEBSTER. 

BY EDWIN B. ROOT, '83. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON and Dan- 
iel Webster stand in the perspective 
of our national history as leaders, at 
successive periods, of kindred forces 
striving toward the same end. 

The political services of Hamilton 
were conspicuous in three results, — 
the framing and adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States ; the organization of national finance ; 
the control of the Federal party. In 1786, amid 
State quarrels threatening intestine strife, Virginia 
called a convention to consider the commercial con- 
dition of the country. Hamilton, perceiving, grasped 
the opportunity ; and through this convention sum- 
moned the States to send delegates to Philadelphia 
to perfect a plan of government. His earnest con- 
victions, supported by his strong logic and brilliant 
eloquence, brought about the adoption of a strong 
centralizing Constitution. Hamilton distrusted pure 
democratic forms. He saw the evils of a mere federa- 

125 



1 26 The Political Services of 

tion of States. He felt that the remedy lay in mould- 
ing these States into a nation. H is first great political 
service was in giving to our Constitution its national 
force. 

Upon the promulgation of the proposed Constitu- 
tion Hamilton became its chief advocate. He e-x- 
plained its provisions and while forecasting its 
dangers urged its adoption. He thus did a double 
service. He won immediate popular favor for the 
Constitution, securing its adoption, and he laid down 
with unsurpassed clearness and force the maxims 
which should guide in its application. 

The first condition of the success of the new gov- 
ernment was adequate revenue and national credit. 
Hamilton becoming first Secretary of the Treasury 
mapped out a financial policy, quickening into life, 
supporting, and perpetuating the prosperity of the 
young Republic. It placed in the hands of the 
government the powerful weapons of a sound credit, 
a productive revenue, and a strong national bank. 
It compelled respect abroad, loyalty at home. 
Around this financial policy Hamilton drew the 
supporters of the national view of the Constitution, 
and the monied class throughout the country. From 
this union sprang the Federal party, the direct result 
of Hamilton's genius as a politician. Through* the 
remaining years of his life Hamilton was the shrewd- 
est counselor and ablest leader of the Federal party. 
As a Federal leader, even when not in ofifice, he 
supported a high protective tariff. When the war 
storms sprung from the French Revolution were 
wasting Europe, and a minister of the Guillotine 



Hamilton and Webster. 127 

Republic had landed at Charleston, Hamilton urged 
and secured a policy of strict neutrality. In the 
hour of Federal defeat, when, Jefferson and Burr 
having equal votes in the electoral college, a Federal 
Congress must choose one of them as President, 
Hamilton did no mean service in securing the defeat 
of Burr. He recognized in him a scheming, unprin- 
cipled adventurer in politics. To save the country 
from his unscrupulous grasp, he by his influence 
placed his bitterest political foe in the office of chief 
magistrate. 

Alexander Hamilton's work was finished when on 
the shores of the Hudson he paid with his life for 
this last great service to his country. 

Daniel Webster was the younger prophet upon 
whom the mantle of Hamilton fell. His great ser- 
vice, like that of Hamilton, was for the Constitution. 
Twenty years after tiamilton's death, just as Webster 
had established his place of leadership, antagonistic 
forces in our government again joined issues. The 
evil which menaced the country was not unforeseen. 
Hamilton had warned against it ; Webster had long 
dreaded its approach. State rights springing into 
life at the very birth of the Constitution was always 
the spectre at the feast, and now grown strong 
with years it threatened with disintegration our na- 
tional life. When Col. Hayne's adroit attack be- 
came known it seemed as if the glorious work of 
Washington and of Hamilton must be undone. To 
Webster the loyal heart of the nation looked to de- 
fend its national life. With a genius able to cope 
with the smallest fallacy and full of his glorious 
theme he nobly met the attack of Hayne, exposed 



128 The Political Services of 

the heresy of State rights, and sketched for future 
generations the broad national grounds upon which 
our Constitution rests. Three months later he closed 
the debate by his great constitutional reply to 
Calhoun. Nullification was crushed in our halls of 
legislation to rise again only by an appeal to arms. 
To Webster's constitutional services in the Senate 
w^ere added his efforts at the bar. His arguments 
on the steamboat monopoly, steamer " Caroline," 
and Dartmouth College cases won for him the 
grateful title of " Expounder of the Constitution." 

After the overthow of nullification there sprang 
up from the old Federalists, and those who sup- 
ported the national bank as established by Hamil- 
ton, the Whig party, under the leadership of Clay 
and Webster. As one of the founders of the Whig 
party, Webster stamped upon that organization the 
properly modified financial doctrines of Hamilton 
and the Federalists. In Hamilton's time our indus- 
tries were weak and needed strong protection. 
Webster, finding them full of life and vigor and no 
longer needing excessive support, adopted and 
incorporated in the creed of the Whig party a policy 
of moderate restriction. As a Whig leader Web- 
ster's service was negative rather than positive. He, 
with Clay, guided the party in the paths of compro- 
mise with slavery, striving to save the Union even at 
the cost of yielding to the South. In opposing the 
annexation of Texas, he sought to save the country 
from the constitutional perpetuity of slavery, which 
would inevitably have followed the division of Texas 
into several slave-holding States. In supporting the 
Kansas-Nebraska compromise he saved the country 



Hamilton and Webster. 129 

from itself. If the Rebellion had occurred in 1850, 
public sentiment would have been with the South 
and slavery would^ have triumphed. In the years 
gained by that compromise, the great Northwest 
filled in, the anti-slavery sentiment in the North 
grew stronger, and the war of i860 crushed slavery 
forever. The statesmen and soldiers of i860 and 
1865 did no truer service to the nation than did the 
earlier leaders, who, wisely yielding in weakness, 
gained time for freedom to grow strong. 

Alexander Hamilton was the suggester and ad- 
vocate of the Constitution. As Secretary of the 
Treasury he placed upon a sound basis the commer- 
cial interests of the country. As a Federal leader he 
averted a war with England, and thwarted the 
dangerous schemes of Burr. Daniel Webster crushed 
the State rights doctrine in the Senate, expounded 
the leading principles of constitutional law in the 
courts, supported as a Whig leader the financial doc- 
trines of Hamilton, and aided in postponing, until 
" the fullness of time," the final issue between slavery 
and freedom. 

Hamilton and Webster belong to the formative 
state of our Constitution. They were needed in its 
times of trial and did well their work. Their grand 
service was for a broad, deep, American nationality. 

When the final struggle between State rights and 
national unity came, signaled by the opening gun 
at Charleston, the thought of loyal America rested 
on the profound political foresight and wisdom of 
Hamilton, the heart of America uttered, with a new 
thrill, the familiar words of Webster, " Liberty and 
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 



THE DEBT OF OUR GOVERNMENT 

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON AND 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 




BY EDWARD M. BARBER, '84. 

GREAT Republic honored and re- 
spected throughout the earth. A 
system of government the freest and 
best regulated in the world. A 
nation, despite its conflicting ele- 
ments, the type of enterprise and 
patriotism. Such is the legacy in- 
herited by every American of our day. Such the 
gift handed down to "millions yet unborn " by the 
fathers of the Republic. 

To no two men does the impartial historian deem 
America under greater obligations for the civil and 
religious liberty she enjoys than to Washington and 
Hamilton. Stormy and unsettled times hung over 
the country when they began their work. The 
mother country, forced by a misguided ministry, 
would compel submission to unjust enactments. 
Insulted at home and abroad, the colonial spirit 
was thoroughly aroused. Resistance or moral slav- 
ery was the only alternative. 

130 



Washington and Hamilton. 131 

Three distinct epochs mark the relations of Hamil- 
ton with Washington. As an aide-de-camp to the 
great general, as an assistant in the formation of the 
Union from the Confederation, and as a powerful 
abettor of the President in placing the country upon 
its feet, he performed vital and essential work. To 
them then, as soldiers, patriots, and statesmen, our 
government is especially indebted. It may well be 
doubted if either could have accomplished the work 
he did without the assistance of the other. It would 
not have satisfied, had either exerted their talents 
without being in closest sympathy. The one needed 
cool, guarded restraint. The other impulse instilled 
by brilliant theories. 

The country was involved in an all but disastrous 
struggle with England. The possibility of the 
future existence of our government depended upon 
the position then taken and maintained by the in- 
fant colonies. A great general was needed who 
could wrest victory from a seemingly hopeless 
encounter. In their extremity the colonists turned 
to the one man who enjoyed their unbroken confi- 
dence. The man " who was not born to be killed 
by a bullet " was placed at the head of the armies. 
To his staff was appointed the young hero of " the 
meeting in the fields." And what deeds were ac- 
complished in arms? Witness the toilsome days of 
the weary eight years that followed. Toilsome days, 
but many of them made famous by achievements 
surpassed on no field across the waters. Only the 
genius of a thorough commander could inspire sup- 
port during those perilous times. None but a Wash- 



132 The Debt of our Government to 

ington could weave a fabric of success out of the 
incongruous materials at his command. See him 
animating that forlorn hope at Valley Forge ; strik- 
ing the enemy from ice-bound Trenton ; guiding 
the campaign of '81, so disastrous to the foe; and 
weaving that fatal web which terminated British 
rule in the colonies, at Yorktovvn. 

During this trying period the support of Hamilton 
was of great importance. It has been well said that 
he held the pen of " the Junius of the American 
army," and busily was it employed in the service of 
his general. As an envoy and field-oflficer he gained 
the highest praise. Too young to hold the highest 
command, he yet gave evidence of sterling and 
brilliant qualities. 

But the war was ended. The smoke of battle 
rolled away, and the last boat which carried British 
arms had left our shore. The country, indeed, was 
saved as by fire. Yet the Confederation, shattered 
and spent by the long drain on its resources, trem- 
bled in its work. Empty coffers alone remained to 
satisfy an immense war debt. A weak and impotent 
financial system offered but empty promises to im- 
portunate creditors. Anarchy itself, dire and dread- 
ful, stared the people in the face. Under such 
unfavorable omens opened the second epoch. 

Called to a seat in Congress, Hamilton worked 
earnestly for a reorganization of the States. State 
and party interests in many cases opposed the 
measure. Equipped with a system of government, 
clear in every detail, he labored earnestly with all 
the strength of his genius for its adoption. The Con- 



Washington and Hainilton. ' 133 

vention meets in 1787, and frames the Constitution 
as afterwards adopted. Instantly his support is 
given to the new act, as though it is his own. The 
opposition again attack the instrument through the 
press, but the utterances of the " Federalist " com- 
pel their silence. The great State of New York 
makes a final attempt to withold its adhesion. We 
picture to ourselves that stormy convention in New 
York City, and the fearful odds against the cham- 
pions of the Constitution. We see the hard-fought 
battles during the days that followed. We hear the 
result of the final vote, and recognize that to Ham- 
ilton the government of the United States owes its 
existence more than to any other man. 

The third epoch dawns. The ntv^ government is 
formed. The body indeed is created, but lacks a 
living organism. A power must be given it or it 
will collapse. Shall it stand or fall? Clearly and 
decidedly do the President and Secretary draw 
tighter the reins of government, and strengthen our 
national finance. A Genet is recalled to distracted 
France, and our American foreign policy is pro- 
claimed abroad. A Whisky Rebellion is suppressed 
in Pennsylvania, and the sovereignty of American 
authority is recognized at home. A complete state- 
ment of the funds of the national Treasury is pub- 
lished, and the people consider the monetary system 
as firm and safe. 

To few men has it been permitted to stamp their 
character indelibly on the nation. Our American 
government has been formed and established through 
the influence of no others more than Washington 



134 ^-^^^ Debt of 0U1' Government to 

and Hamilton. A feeling of intense nationality per- 
vaded all their acts. Personal motives were always 
subservient to national demands, and they would 
detect and apply these when others would fail to 
notice them. True it is that some of Hamilton's 
acts were guided by passion, and were unworthy 
of his otherwise illustrious career. Yet his unim- 
passioned thought was always for his country. 

To Washington, our government to-day is accus- 
tomed to look as to its founder. It is no mere flat- 
tery when he is, perhaps fondly, styled the " father 
of his country." "The working and existence of 
the new government," said a writer of that day, 
" altogether depended upon the moral force which 
his name and character would bring to its chief 
office." The pure and lofty sentiments which he 
infused into his policies, even yet throb through 
the pulses of our national life. He labored for a 
unity of government, for an enlightened public 
opinion, and the development of virtue and moral- 
ity, as national traits. He turned from a buried 
war record to the promotion of agricultural wealth, 
as a true basis of national prosperity. He invoked 
the approval of divine sanction on public as well as 
private acts, and best enabled our government to 
become the creation of independent and sovereign 
people. 

It is not too much to say that in all the three 
departments of the government, executive, legisla- 
tive, and judicial, it was Hamilton who, at the out- 
set, planned, explained, and vindicated the course 
that must be pursued by them. We attribute to 



VVasJiington and Hafiiilton. 135 

Marshall the establishment of the Judiciary as the 
supreme source of law, and to this he is of course 
entitled. But back of these are the essays of the 
" Federalist," the fountain from which Marshall's 
views of the scheme of government are drawn. To 
him our government must ever be indebted for its 
financial system. " He established the doctrine of 
a liberal construction, and of the implied powers ; 
and shares with Washington the honor of devising 
and carrying out our foreign policy." 

To them our government owes a great debt. 
Their public acts were only for the nation. As they 
were national in thought and spirit, so in this later 
day do their lives awake in every patriot breast a 
renewed love of country. Purified at the altar of 
true devotion to country are the statesmen of our 
day made nobler and stronger. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THE PRESL 
DENTIAL ELECTION OF 1800. 

BY EDMUND J. WAGER, '85. 






HE Presidential election'of 1800 closed 
the administration of the Federalist 
party and ended the public career 
of that party's guiding genius, the 
founder and defender of American 
nationality, Alexander Hamilton. 
Twelve years of prosperous experi- 
ment had passed and had revealed a future bright 
with possibilities. The shattered Confederacy had 
become a nation. The Constitution was no longer 
a devic*e of monarchists, it was the accomplishment 
of statesmen, and the party that had grown in its 
defense stood triumphant in its victories. 

If wise and harmonious counsels had attended the 
hour of success, the election of 1800 would not have 
seated Thomas Jefferson, a Democrat, in the chair 
of Washington and Adams. But dissensions and 
jealousies arose. Alien laws and stamp duties 
completed a series of imprudent measures which an 
inconsiderate majority enacted to its own destruc- 
tion. The parties entered the contest well matched. 

136 



The Pi^esideiitial Election of 1800. 137 

The Federalists were in power and were strong in 
numbers, but the Democrats were better fighters 
and were better united. Both sides poured into the 
struggle all the bitterness of a tempestuous era. 
The part that Hamilton took in this election was 
important. It revealed most strikingly the weak- 
ness of the man, who, in the early years, when the 
floods of passion beat against the state, when lib- 
erty and union trembled in the balance, bore the 
government upon his shoulders. Behind the sun- 
light of his fame, which will illuminate the history 
of this nation until the volume shall be closed for- 
ever, his faults and foibles fade away. 

Two elements contributed largely to elect Jeffer- 
son, the skilful management of Burr and the indis- 
cretion of Adam.s. It was from Aaron Burr that 
the Democratic party learned how to win its vic- 
tories, and it was at his hand that Hamilton received 
his first defeat. 

The campaign began early, and Federalists and 
Democrats gathered their forces for a fierce conflict. 
It was evident that the election in New York would 
decide the struggle, and that New York City would 
decide the State. Presidential electors were then 
chosen by the legislature elected in April. In New 
York City, in the spring of 1800, Hamilton and 
Burr measured their strength and fought out the 
decisive battle of the campaign. Hamilton entered 
the canvass with all the resources of a powerful in- 
tellect, unrivaled eloquence, and a profound knowl- 
edge of principles. Burr, energetic, persuasive, 
untiring, was the prince of demagogues. He bribed 



138 Alexander Hamilton and 

the avaricious, flattered the vain, and threatened 
the timid. Not the minutest detail, whether in the 
availabiHty of candidates or in the temper and habits 
of voters, escaped his scrutiny. He was all things 
to all men. He won. The city elected Democratic 
representatives by 400 majority, and Burr was re- 
warded with the nomination for the Vice-Presidency. 

As a leader of men, Hamilton had failed. A 
Federalist, proud and self-assertive, distrustful of 
democracy and all its works, he was never popular 
with the masses. He could create a financial system 
for a government of fifty millions, he could control 
at his own will the legislation of Congress, but he 
could not carry a ward in his own city. 

The result in New York left little hope for the 
reelection of Adams. The Federalists were out- 
generaled and defeat stared them in the face. If 
anything was needed to complete the overthrow it 
Vv'as found in the division between the President and 
the party leaders. John Adams, always a better 
fighter than harmonizer, appeared to his best advan- 
tage when Great Britain had a price upon his head. 
His Presidency was marred by disaffection in the 
party and intrigues in the cabinet. Of Hamilton, 
the real head of the Federalists, Adams was jealous, 
and between the two leaders existed an enmity 
which the coming election seemed to aggravate 
rather than abate. A few da)'s after the election in 
New York, Adams removed from his cabinet the 
Secretaries of State and of War, on account of their 
Hamiltonian proclivities. The feud culminated in 
the publication of a pamphlet written by Hamilton, 



The Presidential Election of 1800. 1 39 

containing a sharp attack upon the President. This 
pamphlet, which was not intended for the general 
eye, was stolen by Burr, and by him given to the 
winds. Thus again did this enterprising politician 
cross the path of his opponent, scattering confusion 
and dismay. The secret was out and there was no 
retreat. As a vindication of the author, this produc- 
tion may have been justifiable, but as a public 
document appearing in the midst of a Presidential 
campaign, the efTect was disastrous. The party 
became hopelessly divided, and Hamilton's influence 
permanently diminished. 

The battle had been lost, but the President was 
not elected. Jefferson and Burr had received an 
equal vote, and the choice devolved upon the House 
of Representatives. The Federalists in Congress 
saw their opportunity to confound their opponents 
and to strike a mortal blow at the great exponent of 
democracy, by voting for Burr for President. 
Blinded by disappointment, borne headlong on the 
current of popular passion, they grasped at the 
chance. In defense of the spirit of the Constitution, 
Hamilton was left alone. Anger and passion were 
now laid aside, and he was again the statesman, ele- 
vated above the beating waves of strife, seeking only 
the general good. Against his party's perilous 
course, he raised the voice of warning. He stood 
for honesty, for fair play, for patriotism in the halls 
of legislation. He had never yielded to the beck of 
caucus or of combination. If men would not listen 
to his counsels, he could stand alone. He labored 
with every argument to turn his party from its wild 



T40 A Icxandcr Hamilton and 

determination. Many days of fruitless balloting 
passed, and the months of anxious suspense had 
nearly lengthened into spring, before his words of 
reason prevailed. The Federalists submitted, but 
they no longer held the people's confidence. The 
blunder was beyond remedy, and the party of 
Washington and Adams went from power, never to 
return. 

Such was the memorable election of 1800. During 
the campaign, Hamilton was residing at New York, 
whither he had retired in poverty to the practice of 
his profession. The public services, the sacrifices, the 
triumphs, that had lifted the government out of an- 
archy and set its feet upon a rock, were accomplished 
years before. To these we give the gratitude of a 
united people. He did more to nationalize, to bind 
the helpless, broken colonies into a Union that should 
endure, than Jefferson or Washington. During every 
war and peril, throughout the night of rebellion, 
when many feared and none could foretell the mor- 
row, our hope rested upon the principles wrought 
out by Hamilton. Judge him not by his errors, 
which were few, but by his virtues, which were many. 
Partisan contests were hot, and men thought ear- 
nestly and struck hard. The Federalists had been 
the party of sound government. They supported 
the Constitution, and when danger threatened, they 
were to it a bulwark of defense. 

From Hamilton the Federalist party drew its life. 
While he held his place at the head of Washington's 
cabinet, directing by his wondrous energies the 
regeneration of the government^ the party prospered. 



The Presidential Election of 1800. 141 

When his work was done and he retired from the 
pubh'c service, it declined. In that history was 
traced a lesson to which politicians of later times 
may well take heed, " He serves his party best, who 
serves his country most." 




THE MILITARY SERVICES OF ALEXANDER 
HAMILTON. 




BY WILLIAM H. HOTCHKISS, '86. 

j|HE world sees its great men from a 
single point of view. Let one win a 
memorable victory, and though he 
may thereafter display the statecraft 
of a Bismarck, posterity will remem- 
ber him as a great general. If he be 
once popularly known as a statesman, 
he might conquer half the world and be a statesman 
still. This is conspicuously true of Alexander Ham- 
ilton. Americans recognize him as a statesman, a 
financier, a diplomatist. In their admiration of his 
services in time of peace, they lose sight of his earlier 
efforts in the hour of war. The stripling of twenty 
summers disappears behind that gigantic character, 
which in later years was to have a moulding influ- 
ence on a nation's laws and institutions. 

To the student, however, the military services of 
Alexander Hamilton shine out like new stars, giving 
an added lustre to his fame. He sees him in the 
fog and darkness covering that masterful retreat 
from Long Island. He hears him ask permission of 

142 



Alexander Hamilton. 143 

his chief to retake Fort Washington with but a 
handful of men. Again he appears at Monmouth, 
correcting Lee's blunders and winning victory from 
defeat. Finally at Yorktown, with the dash of Ney, 
the magnetism of Napoleon, and the coolness of his 
own great Washington, he captures a redoubt with 
the loss of scarcely a man, and makes the surrender 
of Cornwallis a necessity. Such is the brief history 
of the "little lion" of Nevis on the field of battle. 
And this was accomplished while in stature and in 
age he was yet a boy. At the outbreak of the 
Revolution, he offered his services as captain of 
artillery ; and had not reached his twenty-sixth year 
when Yorktown fell. Ambitious, impulsive, and 
brave, it was not strange that his fancy reveled in 
dreams of military glory, and that his confident 
spirit should look forward to that honorable and 
high renown which attends the successful general. 
Could such a future as his restless ambition painted 
ever have been realized? Intrepidity, penetration, 
strategy, untiring activity, and magnetism, — all were 
his. He could plan a campaign as well as Washing- 
ton, had Napoleon's fire and Wellington's skill in 
governing men. But a lack of that sterling quality, 
patience, might ere long have brought disaster. 
His blood, quickened by the heat of the tropics, 
would brook no delay. Like that other man of 
passionate activity, his ambition might have starved 
to death on a St. Helena, far from the scene of his 
fame. 

What Americans owe to Washington for his quick 
perception of the merits of the youthful Hamilton 



144 TJic Military Sa'vices of 

can only be conjectured. Certain it is, however, 
that had the great commander never invited Cap- 
tain Hamilton of the artillery to take a position on 
his staff, we might never have heard of Hamilton 
the statesman. Early in '']'], when scarcely twenty 
years old, he was offered a place in Washington's 
military household, as aide-de-camp and private sec- 
retary. Here ended his aspirations for a military 
crown. Here began his struggle for the civic wreath. 
For three weary years, the critical years of war, 
Hamilton's pen wrote incessantly. Have you ever 
admired the terseness, the plainness, or the dignified 
tone of Washington's despatches? Hamilton was 
their author. Have you ever wondered at the di- 
plomacy of the commander-in-chief when Gates was 
striving to supersede him ? In the main that too 
was Hamilton's work. Troup says, " the pen of our 
army was held by Hamilton." Here, too, then must 
we look in seeking an estimate of his military ser- 
vices. Not alone by the impetuous charge, or 
bravery in the front rank of battle ; nor again by 
strategy or generalship, or by coolness in the hour 
of defeat, can his services be estimated. Hamilton's 
sword was his pen, and his magnetism came not 
from acts, but from words. 

Picture a scene during the terrible winter at 
Valley Forge. It is night. Taps have long since 
echoed against the slumbering hills. Save the 
tread of the sentry, the camp is still. Camp fires 
are extinguished ; lights are out. From one hut 
alone comes the glimmer of a candle. Within is 
a young officer, beardless, yet bearing the trace of 



Alexander Hamilton. 145 

thought and care on his brow. No sound is heard 
save the ceaseless scratch of his quill, rushing 
over the paper. Hours pass, and still he is writing. 
Letters to ministers, diplomatists, and rulers are 
written ; commands to generals, their advice to Con- 
gress. At length he pauses, and, on looking up, 
finds himself no longer alone. A tall, serene man 
has entered. Running quickly over the mass of 
letters, he signs them, then seems to muse and 
ponder. The burden of a nation's life or death 
seems almost too heavy for him to bear. At last he 
bursts out with the story of his trials, his disappoint- 
ments, the dangers of his army. He unburdens the 
plan of the coming campaign, and at length asks, 
" My boy, what do you think of all this?" Hamil- 
ton is silent a moment, then begins to speak. He 
sees things on their bright side. The hope of youth 
is his ; and his words are full of cheer. He talks of 
the coming campaign, and in a plain but respectful 
tone gives his opinion. When Washington departs, 
the doubt of age has yielded to the buoyant hope of 
youth. 

Such were the military services of Hamilton. In 
later years he became the statesman. Close-linked 
with that must ever be the proud appellation, Hamil- 
ton, the secretary, the confidant, the friend, the 
younger brother of Washington. 

In the light of these facts, it would be an interest- 
ing study to compare the military with the civil ser- 
vices of Alexander Hamilton. In which capacity, as 
a soldier or a citizen, did he do the most for his 
country? No one could answer. His deeds in the 



146 



Alexander Hainiltoii. 



Revolution are so intimately woven with those of 
Washington, that a correct estimate of them is im- 
possible. Were it possible to separate fame from 
fame, to give each his just meed of praise, perchance 
we might learn that the days of Hamilton's youth 
were the days of his greatest services. Of one thing, 
however, his countrymen may feel sure. The mili- 
tary career of Alexander Hamilton led him on to 
those deeds which were the especial glory of an age 
bright with resplendent achievements. Had he been 
a successful general, history would mention him with 
Gates, Schuyler, and Herkimer. His name would 
never have been linked with those of Jefferson, 
Adams, and Morris. But the military diplomatist 
became, with scarcely a change in his duties, the 
civil diplomatist. Washington's military secretary 
was soon his first Secretary of the Treasury. When 
the pen of history inscribes the names of the heroes 
of the Revolution on the tablet of fame, the name 
of the young aide-de-camp must be written with 
those of Washington, Green, Lafayette, Putnam, 
and Marion. 







^d 




THE VERDICT OF EXPERIENCE ON HAMIL- 
TON'S CONSTITUTIONAL THEORIES. 

BY JOHN G. PECK, '87. 

INDER the cooperative influence of its 
written and precedent constitutions 
our nation has produced a history 
that reads Hke a romance. These con- 
stitutions have been complementary 
forces in all governmental legislation. 
Where the one has failed the other 

has succeeded. 

Alexander Hamilton fully realized the weakness 
of the Confederation. The repeated failures of Con- 
gress clearly demonstrated that anarchy was threat- 
ening the nation, even before the close of the 
Revolution. With mere advisory power and no 
coercive force ; with frequent rotations in office, and 
the proclamation that "Each State retains its 
sovereignty," the States were fast separating and 
assuming the functions of individual republics. A 
profound feeling of distrust was now pervading the 
nation. At this crisis Hamilton stepped forward as 
the champion of a new form of government. 

A strong Federal administration and a flexible 
147 



148 Hamiltoii s ConstittLtioual Theories. 

constitution, whose mainspring should be precedent, 
was the plan he advocated as the only safeguard of 
national liberty. 

Just emerging from the despotism of monarchy, 
the people were opposed to a constitution savoring 
of a government that was proverbially associated 
with tyranny. Ours was not a nation moulded out of 
the ruins of a fallen and dismembered empire. The 
people created it and rendered it independent ; its 
governor, then, the people should be. Any scheme 
for radical reform was received with pronounced 
disfavor. Many thought the Articles of Confedera- 
tion could be amended to meet the exigency of the 
times. 

Thus the constitutional framers dared not adopt 
Hamilton's entire plan. The epoch was not ripe 
for such vast strides in nationalism. Amid the clash 
of popular passions the propositions were thought 
the harbinger of aristocracy. The pulpit and press 
denominated them mere " Utopian dreams." Hamil- 
ton strenuously held that the States should have 
complete jurisdiction over their internal affairs, " for," 
said he, " the destruction of the States must be a 
political suicide." 

When, finally, the Constitution was ratified, it 
ceased to be an untested theory. Henceforth it 
must stand by virtue of its own adaptation to our 
civilization, or be superseded by one more adjustable. 
The crucial test came with the Embargo Act. New 
England was reduced to mendicancy. The cry of 
" unconstitutional " arose from all quarters. Con- 
gress claimed the act was authorized by the implied 



Hamilton s Constitutional Theories. 149 

powers of tlie Constitution. New England sub- 
mitted *and endured the consequences. This was 
the first signal triumph of the central government 
over State authority. 

The war of 1812 demonstrated the necessity of 
concerted action among the States. 

Confidence in the centralized power increased 
throughout the nation until the extra tariff of 1816, 
which first drew the line of demarcation between 
the North and the South. From this date the his- 
tory of our constitutions and the predominance of 
either must be read by the light of party suprem- 
acy. The South led by South Carolina claimed the 
right to interpose its veto on the laws of Congress, 
and that any State could, and of a right ought to, 
withdraw from the Union when national legislation 
became subversive of its vital interests. 

But Webster in the Senate valiantly contested for 
the most extreme principles of Federalism that 
Hamilton advocated. The Constitution was not a 
compact. It was an indissoluble Union.' Even be- 
fore Webster's death the intelligence of the conti- 
nent thoroughly endorsed the most unqualified 
views of United States sovereignty. Intense cohe- 
sion of interests prevailed, and a deep conviction of 
identity was holding sway over the nation's con- 
sciousness, melting away party chains, when nullifi- 
cation and the memorable Civil War which followed 
it, arrayed themselves for resistance against the 
supreme law. 

Secession came from conviction, not from mob 
ignorance. The South, with her renowned states- 



150 Hamiltoii s Coiistitntional Theories. 

men, believed that the Constitution granted this 
incontestable privilege. 

The history of this contest is a vivid epitome of 
the triumphs of federalism. It was a final struggle 
against the forces that were operating to effect a 
complete amalgamation of the nation and the indi- 
vidual commonwealths. At this crisis President 
Lincoln, in direct opposition to the written Consti- 
tution, proclaimed the negro unconditionally free. 
Congress, too, usurped the right to fix the money 
standard for the entire nation. This intense strain 
could have been once forever obviated had Hamil- 
ton's theory of constitutional flexibility been origin- 
ally adopted. It was the flexibility of the English 
constitution that influenced Hamilton and Adams 
to pronounce it, with all its imperfections, " the 
most perfect government that ever existed." Jeffer- 
son calls this Hamilton's " monarchial predilection." 
However monarchial it seemed then, his principles 
of government have ever been the palladium of our 
national liberty in all great crises. When the finger 
of destiny traced upon the walls of a dismembered 
Republic unutterable ruin ; when Bull Run was lost 
once — twice ; when the Confederacy pushed on to- 
ward Washington, and the hopes of a triumphant 
cause were staggering under the burden of defeat ; 
when the signs of the hour pointed to our inevitable 
destruction from among " the powers of the earth," 
the constitutional principles of that mightiest of 
statesmen came to our rescue, chained the fell dogs 
of war, and bound up the gaping wounds of a bleed- 
ing brotherhood. 



Hamilton s Constitutional Theories. 1 5 1 

Hamilton held that the powers of Congress should 
be so granted as to cover all necessary legislation. 
But Congress has compensated this real deficiency 
by taking advantage of the implied powers. These 
have ever been the chief dynamic energy in our 
national legislation. In citing the English constitu- 
tion as overcoming this difificulty, Hamilton was 
correct. The tendency of all late legislation has 
been in harmony witii a broad and liberal interpre- 
tation of our Constitution. 

Cooley says that the Constitution must be inter- 
preted by the light of contemporaneous history. 
This mode of interpretation has proved that we 
have two constitutions, — one written, and one 
founded on precedent. The history of the late 
oleomargarine bill confirms the assertion. The law 
prohibiting imitation wines was quoted as a pre- 
cedent justifying Congress in passing such an act. 
Upon this basis all legislation for the adjustment of 
industrial difificulties must hereafter depend. 

The tendency of the last constitutional amend- 
ments has been to invest Congress with discretionary 
powers. The cogency of this, experience has plainly 
indicated. It is the same reecho, after nearly a 
century of positive experiment, of Hamilton's 
design. 

The severest stumbling-block in the congress of 
Confederation was extreme State supremacy. Hamil- 
ton resolutely struck at the root of this gigantic 
despot. Many years of experience have been essen- 
tial to sanction fully the tenets of this doctrine. 
But polygamy in the West, commercial differences 



152 Hamilton s Constittitional Theories. 

in the East, could never be adjusted by the separate 
States, to the nation's welfare. For if Utah were 
sovereign, polygamy would ridicule all virtue ; if 
California were sovereign, she would cast the China- 
man headlong into the sea. Thus the honor of our 
country, at home and abroad, could never be con- 
served by State sovereignty. 

The impartial verdict of experience is the grandest 
commentary on Hamilton's constitutional theories. 
They are welded into the very tire of the wheel of 
America's progress, and the will-center of the conti- 
nent is augmented and stimulated to its fullest de- 
velopment through the power and influence they 
have repeatedly exerted. They have equipoised 
the whole nation, and given us a name now " known 
and honored throucihout the earth." 








ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THE CONSTI- 
TUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787. 

BY EDMUND R. WILCOX, 'S8. 

iHE American colonies, in their struggle 
for separation from the mother coun- 
try, were actuated by two great 
principles, — independence and popu- 
lar representative government. The 
Revolution had established the one ; 
the other was yet to become the vital 
characteristic of our institutions. Warriors, through 
dangers and difficulties unparalleled in history, had 
wrung victory from defeat, freedom from tyranny. 
Statesmen must now solve even a more difficult 
problem ; a government must be created out of the 
chaos of revolution. 

The heroes in war became the leaders in peace ; 
the lieutenant of Washington became the organizer 
of constitutional government. Alexander Hamilton 
was preeminent in foreseeing the need of a strong 
national government ; not a mere confederation of 
sovereign States, but a government founded upon 
popular consent and operating directly upon the in- 
dividual, — an Union, " one and inseparable." Ham- 

153 



154 Alexander Hamilton and 

ilton overcame local prejudices ; and, rising above 
sectionalism, he sought the good of the whole peo- 
ple. He considered a confederation of thirteen 
rival States, each sovereign within itself, a " rope of 
sand," a delusion which must end in final ruin. 

What was the condition of the Confederated 
States ten years after the last battle for independ- 
ence? A league of independent States without re- 
sources, without commerce, without credit ; States 
jealous, discordant, feeble in action, verging upon 
bankruptcy ; the people clamorous, distressed, dis- 
heartened ; everywhere " broken promises and un- 
realized hopes, social and political chaos." A cloud 
blacker than war, filled with unforeseen disaster, 
hung over the land and was fast enveloping all 
within its foreboding folds. 

Then it was that Hamilton arose to avenge the 
wrongs wrought by narrow men ; then it was that 
his genius welded the discordant States into an in- 
dissoluble national Union. His untiring spirit 
urged upon the legislature of New York the neces- 
sity of a strong central government ; in Congress he 
proposed reformatory measures; and, to personal 
friends, he pictured the horrors of anarchy and fra- 
ternal bloodshed, pleading, with an earnest and 
hopeful voice, for the amelioration of the condition 
of his countrymen. Hamilton, the foster-child of 
America, was the beacon-light guiding her disheart- 
ened people and distracted States in the then dark 
hours of demoralization. 

The call of Maryland and Virginia, for a commer- 
cial convention to meet at Annapolis, presented to his 



TJie Constitiitional Convention of I'jS'/. 155 

sagacious mind the occasion he had so long desired. 
Here was the golden opportunity, which if neglected, 
would disappoint all hopes of consolidation ; if 
seized, would secure national government. Hamil- 
ton was the man of the hour. He presented a set 
of resolutions calling for a convention " to devise 
such provisions as might appear to be necessary to 
render the Constitution of the federal government 
adequate to the exigencies of the Union." 

The Constitutional Convention met at Philadel- 
phia, on the twenty-fifth day of May, 1787. Here 
were assembled the most learned and brilliant of 
American statesmen. The South sent her Pinck- 
ney, Madison, and Randolph ; the North her Frank- 
lin, Wilson, and Hamilton ; while the majesty of 
Washington calmly presided over all. The Virginia 
plan, the first proposed, provided for three branches 
of government, a " Council of revision," and repre- 
sentation in proportion to quota of contribution ; 
in short it contained the germinal principles of gen- 
eral government ; while the New Jersey scheme, the 
second considered, was simply a revision of the old 
Confederation intended to bridge over the imme- 
diate difficulties. The one provided for a strong 
government, yet with a too broad concession to State 
sovereignty; the other for a weak league, — a politi- 
cal chimera. 

After a protracted discussion of these plans, when 
dissolution of the Convention seemed imminent, 
Hamilton presented his "outline" of a strong 
national government. He did not offer it with any 
hope of its adoption. He knew too well his isolated 



156 Alexander Hamilton and 

position in the Convention. Standing alone in the 
midst of contending forces, surrounded by enemies, 
opposed by his colleagues, he only hoped to stem 
the tide surging against the rising citadel of consti- 
tutional government. Should the Convention dis- 
solve in controversy, the disruption of the frail Union 
would result and complete national ruin follow in its 
train. Hamilton saw it all. He felt the bitterness 
of scorn cast upon his action, but more deeply he 
felt the warm blood of patriotism in his veins. The 
life of a nation was at stake and he was the pilot of 
its course. In a speech of six hours' duration, 
expressed in simple and forcible language, delivered 
with impassioned energy, he not only silenced his 
opponents, but inspired them with the quickening 
impulse of his own ardent spirit. He advocated the 
necessity and urgency of consolidation ; there must 
be but one head to the government. He reasoned, 
— Union is strength ; the closer the union, the greater 
the strength. Hamilton considered the British gov- 
ernment the best in the Old World, in that it 
secured liberty to the people, yet ruled them with a 
powerful and protecting arm. He recommended the 
English constitution as a model which America 
might modify to meet the New World's needs. He 
did not advocate the adoption of England's system, 
but the principles which underlie it, — the elements 
of strength, equality, and justice. Strictly adhering 
to the popular representative theory, he desired a 
government resting solely on the will of the Ameri- 
can people. Although his formal plan failed to be 
adopted, yet he had accomplished his design ; the 



The ConstitiUional Convention of lySj. 157 

Convention had received an impetus which, sweep- 
ing everything before it, cuhninated in the adoption 
of our national Constitution, , 

Certain it is that our system of government is the 
work of no one man, but most certain is it that 
Hamilton's ideas pervade the entire structure. 
Guizot says, " There is not in the Constitution of the 
United States an element of order, of force, of dura- 
tion, which Hamilton has not powerfully contributed 
to introduce into it and to cause to predominate." 

Hamilton exercised a vast influence in private 
conversation with the members, — an influence which 
probably did more than his most eloquent debates 
to ingraft his fundamental principles into the Con- 
stitution. His fluency of speech, his profundity of 
thought, and his thorough knowledge of govern- 
mental systems, made him a powerful and persuasive 
orator. He grasped all the details of an argument, 
viewed it upon all sides, and analyzed it with a 
nicety and discrimination which rendered his reason- 
ing too logical to refute and too weighty to resist. 

Hamilton's work in the Convention was done. 
Deserted by his colleagues, he withdrew from the 
Convention, not in a dejected mood, not like one 
who had sown to the winds to reap the buffetings of 
the unpitying elements, but rather as one who had 
planted deep in fertile soil, ideas which must spring 
up as the living, enduring principles for a nation's 
government. 

Hamilton returned in time to affix his name to 
the proposed Constitution for which he had so 
ardently wished and so energetically worked. Let 



158 



A Icxandei' Ha in ilton. 



this last act of his in the Convention refute the un 
founded aspersion that he was not in sympathy with 
the Constitution. Let Hamilton's singular devotion 
and unequaled triumph in New York's adopting 
convention and the remaining years of his brilliant 
career before the thread of his noble life was cut by 
Burr's murderous shot, be an unanswerable proof of 
his loyalty to the Constitution and of his love for the 
American people. 




THE INFLUENCE OF THE "FEDERALIST." 



BY JAMES D. ROGERS, 'i 




iNGLISHMEN cherish Magna Charta 
as the foundation of their free gov- 
ernment. The Great Charter through 
all the centuries of its existence has 
moulded British thought and directed 
British legislation. The " Federalist " 
is the Magna Charta of American in- 
stitutions. It has been the guide of the nation, 
restraining from the path of error, and pointing to 
the way of wisdom. This great commentary antici- 
pated the operation of the departments of the gov- 
ernment, removed the Constitution from the domain 
of arbitrary interpretation, and laid the basis of a 
sound constitutional law. Upon this foundation 
the jurists and statesmen of the country have 
erected the vast superstructure of national proceed- 
ings. The glory of a great people has proceeded 
from its principles. 

This famous treatise marks an era in popular 
government. Old theories were discarded. Repub- 
lican forms were expanded and successfully applied 
to a vast territory. The work appeared at a pecu- 

159 



i6o The Influence of the '' Federalist T 

liarly critical period in American history. A mere 
confederation of States can resist foreign attack, or 
fight a war for hberty like the Revolution of '7^- 
It is internal dissension that makes a central con- 
trolling power a necessity. At the close of the war 
the people were citizens of New York, Virginia, or 
Massachusetts, rather than of the United States. 
Interstate strife and jealousy instantly appeared. 
The year seventeen hundred and eighty-seven found 
the affairs of the nation at the lowest ebb. Credit 
was gone; bankruptcy was impending; the people 
were despondent. The united colonies, which had 
so successfully established their independence, had 
become alienated from one another. " State is 
against State, and all against the federal head," 
wrote General Knox. The sentiment of nationality 
with which Patrick Henry had fired the people 
scarcely existed. The federal government was a 
miserable farce. "The corporation of a college or 
missionary society," said Fisher Ames, " are greater 
potentates than Congress." The States within 
themselves lacked the attributes of stability. The 
"fine, theoretic government of Massachusetts" gave 
way at the first exhibition of lawlessness. " It was 
the awful spectacle of a nation without a national 
government." 

All attempts to reconcile existing difificulties were 
abortive. The people did not recognize their danger. 
AfTairs of public concern were disregarded in the zeal 
for personal interests. Desperate debtors, whose 
only hope of financial salvation was in the abolition 
of debts, strenuously opposed any changes which 



The Injiiicnce of the '■'■Federalists i6i 

could compel them to fulfil their obligations. Am- 
bitious politicians, without hope of gaining influence 
in the national councils and fearful of losing their 
prestige in local affairs, bitterly resisted any con- 
cession of State authority. Influential individuals 
in all the States were hostile to any general union, 
and desired several confederacies. The great mass 
of the people were led to regard with distrust the 
prospect of a firm national government. 

Such was the feeling when the Constitution was 
presented for ratification. The most determined 
hostility was at once encountered. Societies were 
formed to conduct a vigorous opposition. A power- 
ful attack was made by Richard Henry Lee in the 
" Letters from a Federal Farmer." The many com- 
promises in the Constitution were strongly de- 
nounced. State pride and jealousy, personal fears 
and animosities were aroused. The earnest efforts 
of enlightened patriots were stigmatized as a desire 
for despotic power. The contest was long and 
bitter. The triumph of the Constitution was due to 
the " Federalist " and the influence of Washington. 
Ineffectual without each other, their united influence 
overcame all opposition. The people thought no 
system could be dangerous which Washington 
firmly supported. The public mind was disposed to 
a calm estimate of the merits of the Constitution, 
and the way was prepared for the " Federalist." 
The statesmanship of Hamilton sent it forth. The 
extent of the work attracted universal attention, and 
the brilliancy of argument based on logical premises 
enforced conviction. The " Federalist " embraced 



1 62 The Injiitencc of the '^Fedei alisty 

within its scope the whole political situation of the 
country, — the causes of disintegration, the danger 
of separate confederacies, the advantages of union 
for the preservation of State interests, and the ne- 
cessity of a vigorous government for the security of 
religion, liberty, and property. The spirit of section- 
alism, which had grown so powerful since the war, 
was exhibited in all the blackness of its deception 
and dangerous character. A flood of light was 
poured upon the then great departments of the 
government, and the whole system was illuminated 
by the genius of the greatest statesman of the age. 
The opposition pamphlet by Lee was entirely 
eclipsed in weight and force of argument. The 
" Federalist " was the great defense of the Constitu- 
tion throughout the nation. The violent discussions 
in the State conventions were hardly more than a 
reproduction of its arguments. Public sentiment 
was revolutionized. The drift of opinion irresisibly 
moved in favor of the proposed system. The Con- 
stitution was adopted and the nation was saved. 

The " Federalist " had accomplished its mission, 
but its influence continued. A difficult task still 
remained. " The establishment of a constitution, in 
time of profound peace, by tlie voluntary consent of 
a whole people, is a prodigy." The character of the 
" Federalist " had rendered easy the completion of 
this prodigy. It had defined and explained the 
powers of the Constitution, which would have been 
at the mercy of the conflicting opinions of party 
spirit without such an interpreter of its fundamental 
principles. All of the numerous commentators have 
recognized the soundness of its doctrine. Marshall ex- 



The Influence of the ''■Federalist''' 163 

pounded the Constitution in accordance with its prin- 
ciples. Webster, Lincohi, and Sumner drew inspi- 
ration from its pages. Ail through the nation's 
history, amid the vicissitudes and changes of a hun- 
dred years, the " Federalist " has guided legislation, 
restrained vicious theories, and promoted a vigorous 
national government. After three-fourths of a cen- 
tury, it was the spirit of the " Federalist," rather than 
the wording of the Constitution, that told the people 
that the central government had the right to control 
and bring into subjection a rebellious State. It took 
millions of dollars and thousands of lives to establish 
the principle, but the triumph was worth the cost. 
We must turn to the same teaching for a solution of 
the present social problems. The only laws that can 
ever settle the labor agitations must be passed in 
Washington, The only remedy for the present 
complication of marriage and divorce laws is in a 
United States law that will insure uniformity of 
rights. It is to the centralizing influence of the 
" Federalist " that we are indebted for a government 
which has maintained, and will maintain, itself 
against internal strife. 

The confines of a nation have been too narrow for 
such a work. The whole civilized world has drunk 
deeply at this fountain of republicanism. French re- 
formers have followed its teachings. German states- 
men have learned the art of federation from it. Eng- 
lish writers have praised its sentiments. Mexico has 
adopted its theories. The republics of South America 
have found it an inexhaustible mine of political wis- 
dom. The work is immortal. Its influence will con- 
tinue as long as republican institutions shall exist. 





HAMILTON, WEBSTER, SEWARD. 
BY WALSTEIN ROOT, '90. 

■j N the history of the United States 
three constitutional crises have de- 
manded the highest statesmanship. 
At the close of the Revolution the 
united colonies, poverty stricken, 
jealous of each other, and no longer 
bound by the urgencies of common 
danger, were fast disintegrating. The Articles of 
Confederation had failed ; and there was no sov^- 
ereign government. 

In this exigency Alexander Hamilton began the 
movement for a firmer union. With rare tact, he 
succeeded in assembling a convention of the States, 
and to this proposed a constitution based on the 
idea of a strong central government. On the rejec- 
tion of this plan, as a whole, he loyally accepted the 
compromise approved by the majority. Through 
the " Federalist," with a force and originality never 
surpassed, he expounded its meaning, explained its 
effects, and urged its advantages; and by his influ- 
ence he contributed more than any other to its rati- 
fication. He so interpreted its provisions, breathing 

164 



Hamilton, Webster, Seward. 165 

into them his own spirit, that the Constitution, in 
its operation, was more his work than of all the 
others who framed it. The broad patriotism and 
greatness of the man were never better shown than 
when, putting aside all personal pique, he expounded 
and defended forms and principles which perhaps 
he feared, yet deemed better than existing dissension 
and weakness. 

Hamilton was the leader, the soul, the original 
genius of the formative period of our Constitution. 
He was not only a leader in creating the Convention 
of '87, not only a leader in its deliberations, not only 
the foremost advocate and defender of the proposed 
Constitution ; but he was the controlling spirit of 
Washington's administration, which established the 
precedents and marked out the course of the new 
government. Each succeeding generation has but 
followed in the pathway illumined by his genius, and 
strengthened and adorned the fabric erected chiefly 
by his master hand. 

Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson, the genera- 
tion that formed the Constitution, passed from the 
stage; the "era of good feeling" came and went; 
and the country entered upon the stormiest period 
of its political existence. The conflict again raged 
round the comparatively untried Constitution. In 
times of domestic peace and minor political dissen- 
sion it had stood the test ; but now the spectre of 
State sovereignty, the menace of disunion, so strong 
in the Convention of '87, vigorous in the contest 
which followed, mighty in the logic of Calhoun 
and the aggressiveness of slavery, battled boldly for 



1 66 Hamilton, Webster, Sezuard. 

constitutional existence. It said, " It is not a con- 
stitution, but a compact." " The States are supreme 
in their sovereignty." The Constitution was at 
stake ; and again there must come a man able to 
expound its doctrines and make it strong to bind 
the ever increasing nation. Ten years before, in 
the Dartmouth College case, Daniel Webster had 
gained a position among the ablest constitutional 
lawyers of his generation. In that case, discussing 
the relations of the general government to that of 
the State, he maintained the sovereignty of the Con- 
stitution. Now, with his soul fired by the taunts 
and fallacies of Hayne, he combated nullification. 
His eloquence, making mightier the logic of Hamil- 
ton, found an echo in the heart of every loyal 
American. His arguments were behind the stern 
vigor of Jackson, when he crushed nullification in 
South Carolina ; and his glowing words, creating a 
sentiment for nationality, stirred the hearts of those 
who fought down secession and saved the Union. 

The great debate of 1830 left slavery untouched ; 
and twenty years later its menace again brought 
conflict. State after State had been enrolled in the 
Union. The question was put and must be an- 
swered, "Can the Constitution, broadening with the 
nation, still keep its grasp and bind into one gov- 
ernment a people stretching from ocean to ocean?" 
With time and growth the problem had become 
more difficult. Under the Constitution, there were 
two social fabrics, two political theories utterly an- 
tagonistic. Could they be reconciled and the Con- 
stitution preserved? 



Hamilton, Webster, Seivard. 167 

Here Webster erred. His intense love of nation- 
ality misled him. The slave oligarchy frightened 
him with threats of secession. To him there seemed 
so much at stake that he dared not but compromise. 

William H. Seward, calm, able, and with a more 
spiritual vision than his two great predecessors, saw 
not only the conflict impending, but where the ulti- 
mate right lay. Declaring, as a United States 
Senator, that " there is a higher law than the Con- 
stitution " to which it must conform, he announced 
the ruling principle of his constitutional career. 
Later, when the struggle grew fiercer, he boldly 
asserted, " It is an irrepressible conflict between op- 
posing and enduring forces . . , and it is the 
existence of this great fact that renders all such pre- 
tended compromises, when made, vain and epheme- 
ral." Strong in his calm foresight, he was enabled, 
as the leader of the Republican party, to prepare for 
the issue, and, as the controlling mind in Lincoln's 
cabinet, to help guide the nation to a full constitu- 
tional freedom and union. His assertion of the 
" higher law " and his recognition of the " irrepressi- 
ble conflict," rank Seward's statesmanship with that 
of our greatest political leaders. 

Hamilton, Webster, and Seward have held po- 
sitions strikingly similar in the progress of the 
nation, yet each had characteristics strongly indi- 
vidual. Hamilton was the logical, Webster the 
oratorical, Seward the ethical statesman. 

Hamilton saw clearly that no human law could 
be supreme ; for he said, " The sacred rights of man 
. . . can never be erased or obscured by mortal 



1 68 Haiuilton, Webster, Seward. 

power." But this never became with him a prin- 
ciple of action. With a mind unerringly logical, he 
wrought out the constitutional life and based it on 
the principles of political philosophy. Webster, 
with the logic of a great intellect and the sympathy 
of a great nature, receiving the Constitution as it 
was, emphasized and strengthened the principles of 
liberty and union. He stirred the heart of the 
nation to sacrifice. Seward, -with a spiritual fore- 
sight beyond those who dealt merely with human 
philosophy, not only perceived the " higher law," 
but realized it. He reconciled the Constitution to 
conscience and made it more enduring, while he 
bowed it to the divine law. 

Hamilton loved order and distrusted the people ; 
he would have a strong government. Webster loved 
the Union ; but forgot the universal right of personal 
freedom ; he would have preserved the Union at the 
cost of compromise with slavery. Seward feared 
God and loved humanity ; he would have had God's 
law^ supreme and all men free. « 

Seward had neither the genius of Hamilton nor 
the eloquence and sympathy of Webster, and he 
could not have done their work, but, combined with 
an intellect little inferior to that of Hamilton and 
Webster, he possessed a moral sensibility beyond 
either. 

Hamilton's genius lifted him above the mass, and 
Webster's sympathetic force led him into error. 
Seward's career is less marred by mistakes, because 
he trod a lower path and was guided by a cooler 
judgment. 



Hamilton^ Webster, Seward. 



169 



To-day, in the opening of our second century, our 
political philosophy is that of Hamilton ; the nation's 
heart still thrills with the eloquent words of Webster, 
and the conscience of a free and united people says 
" Amen " to the lofty utterances of Seward. 





THE PRINCIPLES THAT DISTINGUISH HAMIL- 
TON AND JEFFERSON AS STATESMEN. 

BY GEORGE M. WEAVER, '91. 

» MONG all the great men who belong 
to the formative period of our 
national life, there are two who are 
especially distinguished, not only for 
breadth of intellect and lofty patri- 
otism, but from the fact that to them, 
above all others, we owe the political 
doctrines and principles upon which our system of 
government is founded. These two men, Alexander 
Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, were the master 
builders of that political system, under which the 
United States has prospered as no land had ever 
prospered before. In it are incorporated their own 
sound though sometimes opposite theories of 
government ; and their teachings have powerfully 
influenced the thoughts, not only of their country- 
men, but of the civilized world. To them are 
mainly due the two great documentary landmarks 
in our history, the one declaring a people " free and 
independent," the other organizing that people 
under a national government, whose powers and 

170 



Hamilton and Jefferson. i 7 1 

duties are definitely settled and carefully balanced, 
and are guarded and limited by definite methods 
and to definite ends. Aptly have Jefferson and 
Hamilton been termed the creator and the organi- 
zer of the nation. But while each of these states- 
men worked zealously for the welfare of the people, 
each strove after an ideal of his own ; and these 
ideals though similar in many respects, were in 
others radically different. 

Born a controversialist, and trained from boyhood 
to close analysis and clearness of expression amid 
the broils and contentions so common throughout 
the country just prior to the Revolution, Alexander 
Hamilton wrought out for himself a system of 
government far in advance of the conceptions of 
his contemporaries. Its leading idea was a strong 
central government, aristocratic in some of its 
features, but thoroughly republican in form and 
intent, whose corner-stones were " free representa- 
tion and mutual checks " in the executive, legisla- 
tive, and judicial departments. He had but little 
faith in the ability of the people to govern them- 
selves, and hence believed in the concentration of 
power in the hands of those specially fitted and set 
apart to govern. While his ofificials were to derive 
their authority from the people, it was his policy to 
remove their administration as far as possible from 
the people at large. In pursuance of these tenets, 
he advocated a chief executive and upper house of 
the legislature elected for life, and a strong federal 
judiciary appointed to hold ofifice during good be- 
havior. In a government such as he proposed, the 



172 Principles that Distinguish 

great danger to the federal power lay with the 
States ; and therefore he counseled the division of 
the larger States, and the appointment of the several 
State executives by the federal executive. 

Like Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson was the origina- 
tor of a policy, and the founder and leader of a party. 
To him what is known as the democratic idea as it 
has existed throughout our history owes its origin, 
shape, and expression. Jefferson's faith in the peo- 
ple was as strong as was Hamilton's distrust of them. 
While the latter would choose out from among them 
a governing class and perpetuate its power, the for- 
mer would have no class distinctions, even though 
temporary in their nature. He would shorten the 
term of all office-holding, and remit all government 
frequently to the people for their ratification or re- 
jection. Jefferson founded his entire system upon 
the broad theory of the political equality and equal 
rights of all men. As the natural result of such 
equality, and as the only sure means of preserving 
it, he recommended a representative government, 
based upon universal suffrage. He believed that in 
order to become competent to govern, every indi- 
vidual should have a share in the government. 
" Men," said he, " cannot become fit for freedom by 
remaining slaves." 

The second principle which distinguished Jefferson 
from most of his fellow statesmen, was his doctrine 
that the sphere of government is limited, and that 
its action should be confined to that sphere. He 
held that government has certain well-defined and 
inherent bounds, beyond which, when it is exercised, 



Hamilton and Jefferson. 173 

it savors of tyranny, and becomes not only unprofit- 
able, but sometimes injurious. " That government," 
he maintained, " is best which governs least." The 
test question, therefore, which should decide the 
power of the general government over any matter 
should be, " Is it necessary ? " In accordance with 
this principle, he insisted that affairs of purely local 
importance should be relegated to the local authori- 
ties; and that the maintenance of public security, 
being the common object, should be the sole duty 
of the common agent. 

Two more different characters than Hamilton and 
Jefferson can scarcely be imagined, Jefferson was 
the more literary, more refined, more popular. 
Hamilton more acute, more practical, more domi- 
neering. Jefferson was somewhat lacking in logical 
ability. His convictions were the result of intuition, 
of his wonderful creative power. He appealed to 
the intuitive perceptions of his hearers, and con- 
trolled them by enlisting their sympathies in his 
favor. Hamilton, on the contrary, was strictly 
logical. He reasoned on every point. The one 
was a positivist ; the other a rationalist. Jefferson 
was a keen judge of human nature ; Hamilton was 
sadly deficient in this faculty. When he was unable 
to convince, he attempted to control, and so made 
himself unpopular. 

Hamilton was an aristocrat by nature, a republican 

• in theory and practice. Jefferson was a democrat 

by nature and principle, but like Hamilton favored 

a representative republican form of government. 

Hence it comes that the result of their effort is a 



I 74 Hamilton and yefferson. 

harmonious whole, for while they worked along dif- 
ferent paths, they were seeking a common goal. 
Hamilton feared democracy, because he thought 
it must lead, as it led in ancient times, to anarchy 
and ultimate despotism ; Jefferson hated aristocracy 
because it meant tyranny and oppression, and was 
diametrically opposed to the principles of liberty 
and equality. 

Both Hamilton and Jefferson, each by the adher- 
ents of the other, have been too severely judged. 
The one has been accused of monarchical, the other 
of anarchical tendencies. Neither charge is true. 
Hamilton was a monarchist only in that he believed 
the English form of government the best that had 
hitherto been invented ; Jefferson was an anarchist 
only in his position that the lowest had equal rights 
with the highest. 

Under the standards of these two statesmen were 
gradually marshaled the opposing political forces of 
the country. The Federalists, with Hamilton at 
their head, distrustful of the people, demanded a 
stronger central government, an increase of the 
power and influence of federal ofificers, and a corre- 
sponding diminution in the authority of the States. 
The Republicans, under the leadership of Jefferson, 
confident in the ability and integrity of the people, 
stood for State supremacy and local self-govern- 
ment. 

The crowning glory of both Hamilton and Jeffer- 
son is, that while each founded a party, both to- 
gether established, with the aid of their coworkers, 
a nation. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND JOHN ADAMS. 




BY JOHN M. CURRAN, '92. 

iH E Revolutionary period of our country- 
produced two men of marked indi- 
viduality, Alexander Hamilton and 
John Adams. Antagonistic in nature, 
in the struggle for the union of the 
colonies, they were one in aim and 
party. Politicians knew them as 
ardent Federalists, but posterity has chosen to call 
them statesmen. 

Hamilton wholly devoted to the cause of the 
Constitution the efforts of a wonderfully fertile 
mind, and lent a personality irresistible in its mag- 
netism and energy. The triumph of the pen that 
silenced enemies was equaled by the eloquence that 
brought disciples from the ranks of the opposition 
and won New York for the Union. At this time 
his great work began. The period of early nation- 
ality was as truly critical as the period of Confedera- 
tion. The spirit of turbulence pervaded the whole 
country, warring constantly with the spirit of the 
Union. The Constitution had been adopted, but it 
was still but a document. Its hidden power few had 

175 



1 76 Alexander Hamilton and 

seen ; its scope few could realize. The constructive 
and inventive genius of Hamilton made him the 
connecting link between anarchy and nationality. 
His power as a statesman was never so conspicuous 
as when he overcame the anarchistic repudiating 
spirit of the colonists, turned the tide of public 
affairs from war to commerce, and gathered the 
resources of a weakened people in a grand effort for 
nationality. 

The career of John Adams begins with the rise of 
liberty in Massachusetts. An orator, a lawyer, and 
a patriot, he was soon a leader in thought and 
action. Early satisfied that separation from Eng- 
land could be the only successful outcome, he con- 
centrated his whole energy upon its accomplishment. 
The third Continental Congress gave testimony to 
his zeal and eloquence when, after that memorable 
debate of July second, it declared the independence 
of the colonies. Yet never was Adams more dis- 
tinguished in his services than as agent to Holland. 
The recognition and aid of European powers was 
the one great need of the new Republic, the earnest 
of its success. He enlisted the sympathy and confi- 
dence of the Dutch in the cause of our people, and 
then, by a bold but happy stroke, asked immediate 
recognition. The nation responded, and his cause 
was won. As a diplomat, Adams had no skill in the 
arts of indirection or mere manceuver. His power 
lay in a well-digested plan, and a bold policy. Self- 
reliant in every crisis, he was ready to stake all on 
the outcome of a great issue. As President, his 
public acts were marked by an uncompromising 



yoJin Adams. 177 

adherence to his own views of high statesmanship. 
Too unyielding to be a partisan, in one of the wisest 
of his public acts, he gave the death-blow to the 
Federal party, 

Alexander Hamilton was a brilliant man. He 
numbered eminent men among his followers, but 
was never popular. In his mental cast, he was im- 
aginative, constructive, not philosophic or specula- 
tive. He could conceive with all the minuteness of 
reality any political situation, and master it. He 
was not visionary but practical, practical to the 
verge of short-sightedness. He seized the present 
with an iron grasp and struggled with it ; the future 
he left untouched. Master of the material of the 
past, accurate in his observation of the present, 
relentless in logic, he was the great inductive poli- 
tician of the age. He lived and breathed in the \ 
spirit of nationality. This was his mission. The 
great purpose of popular government he never ( 
realized. 

John Adams, on the other hand, was a man of 
great simplicity and directness, a stubborn realist. 
His nature was fearless. Personal ambition could 
never make him a coward. Though deficient in 
tact, he never lacked judgment ; and on that judg- 
ment, he stood or fell. But he was master of his 
ideas, never their slave. In his later life, frankness 
gave way to censoriousness, pride to suspicion. 
His services were a sacrifice of happiness for his 
country's good. He worked alone, unsupported by 
the sympathy of his colleagues. His eminence as a 
statesman was due to the power of a comprehensive 



1 78 Alexander Hamilton and 

mind, disciplined by study, quickened by political 
controversy, combined with the strength of a self- 
reliant nature. He was not a politician but a 
patriot, an orator but never a demagogue, a staunch 
ambassador and a broad statesman. 

These two great men were as diverse in character 
as they were in birth. Born of a Scotch father and 
a Huguenot mother, Hamilton was shrewd, logical, 
and at the same time, fervent and impulsive. He 
responded quickly to a great movement, was fasci- 
nated by military enterprise. Adams displayed the 
old Puritan stubbornness and heroism. He avoided 
excitement, moved slowly to his decisions, and then 
stood firm. There was this great d-ifference in the 
texture of their statecraft. Adams unconsciously 
allowed the personal element to enter too strongly 
into his public life. Hamilton could eliminate self. 
With him, the personal element entered only in the 
strong grasp of affairs. 

If conformity to the great political ideas of a na- 
tion is a test of the highest statesmanship, Hamilton 
had one marked defect. Of the two great principles 
of American government, centralization and repre- 
sentation, the former alone received his support. He 
was therefore only half in sympathy with our politi- 
cal system. He himself represented no ideas but 
his own ; his genius was in an executive capacity ; 
his plan of government was only indirectly represen- 
tative. That he distrusted the great body of the 
nation, there is no doubt. He could see its weak- 
ness, but had no faith in its power to recuperate. 
Competent, in his day, to appreciate any phase of 



John Adams. 1 79 

American political life, his conception of the ulti- 
mate outcome was at fault. 

Adams was American by birth, training, and at- 
tachment. He grew in his political creed as the 
nation grew. He knew the people for he was of the 
people, and was always a representative statesman. 
His famous reply to George HI. is characteristic of 
the man, " I must avow to your majesty that I have 
no attachment but to my own country." Adams 
was a keen, discerning student of American politics, 
had analyzed the fundamental theories of our gov- 
ernment, and was a thorough disciple of its two 
great principles. A true American in spirit, he well 
knew the strength of the new nationality, and was 
in sympathy with its every impulse. 

The services of Hamilton and Adams extend 
through a period of wonderful transition in our na- 
tional development. Casting in their lot with the 
rebellious colonies, as the two great pilots of na- 
tional conservatism, they stood by the helm of state 
until the success of the Republic was assured. In 
high-minded statesmanship, and practical govern- 
ment, they Were one ; in their spheres of action, and 
political beliefs, complementary. Adams has be- 
queathed to the national life of to-day two charac- 
teristic features of its foreign policy, the spirit of 
^moderation and the attitude of strict neutrality. 
j Hamilton's genius has been the guiding star of our 
\strong nationalit)', and it still lives in the marvelous 
adjustment of the federal government to our written 
Constitution. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON AS A LAWYER. 



BY DANIEL W. E. BURKE, '93. 




[ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S genius 
was as heaven-born as the poet's ; 
as versatile as that of the philoso- 
pher. A young man of twenty-six, 
he mastered the law in four months 
and added to its literature a treatise 
on. practice. At twenty-seven, he 
appeared before the Supreme Court with Robert 
Livingston opposed. Many of his contemporaries 
were giants in the profession ; but time has passed 
them over and dust-covered reports are the only 
witnesses of their greatness. They were lawyers ; 
Hamilton was a genius. He was more thoughtful 
than the eloquent Morris, more honest than the 
artful Burr. 

Called to the Convention of 1787, Hamilton 
shaped the Constitution of a sovereign power, — the 
fountainhead of law. He alone was master of the 
situation. He knew that a league of independent 
States could not exist ; he had fought against a 
monarchy. Thus was evolved the Constitution, — a 
living monument to Hamilton, the constitutional 

I So 



Hamiltoii as a Laivyer. i8i 

lawyer. Called to the cabinet of Washington, he 
executed the laws which he had made. He had 
neither courts nor libraries from which to cite pre- 
cedents. He followed authorities to their source, 
man to nature, nature to God. " Hamilton was the 
Supreme Court " of the nation ; the " Federalist " 
its opinion. 

When the States were united, the Constitution 
adopted, and public credit established, Hamilton 
turned again to the court-room. From that time 
forward he was in active practice, retained in every 
important case and recognized as the ablest advocate 
in New York. Yet so chaotic was the system of 
reporting in those early days, that few of his great 
cases have come down to us in the books. Indeed 
but three. These three present Alexander Hamil- 
ton, the lawyer, as the defender of truth, the cham- 
pion of justice, and the expositor of liberty. 

A poor boy was accused of a heinous crime. Sus- 
picion fell upon a certain witness. When the man 
was called, Hamilton placed two lighted candles in 
such a position that the witness' head was between 
them. Then, looking fixedly at the witness, he 
called upon the jury to " look through that man's 
countenance to his conscience." The man faltered. 
The jury discredited his testimony. Truth pre- 
vailed ; and the real culprit died on an English 
gallows. 

His conduct in another case was as characteristic. 
LeGuen, a Frenchman deprived of his estate by 
New York merchants, attempted to recover it in the 
court of errors. Hamilton, who was his attorney, 



1 8 2 Hamilton as a Lawyer. 

spoke to a jury of Americans in behalf of a citizen 
of a hostile country. But with him justice was the 
one end of law. The facts were with the French- 
man, sentiment and friendship with the defendants. 
Yet so clearly did Hamilton prove his case, so elo- 
quently plead the cause of justice, that the unwilling 
jurymen yielded, threw their feelings to the winds, 
and brought in a verdict for the plaintiff. 

But Hamilton's greatest service to his country as 
a practicing lawyer was in the Croswell libel case. 
Here he contended not only for the cause, but for 
two great principles, — First, where the complaint 
alleges a libelous publication, the truth must be re- 
ceived in evidence, and, if proven, be a defense ; 
and second, the jury shall judge of the intent and 
the law. 

In an attempt to stifle the press, Jefferson's party 
arrested Croswell, editor of the " Hudson Wasp," 
on a charge of libel. The case was many times ap- 
pealed ; and Hamilton at last appeared for Croswell 
before the Supreme Court. Shall the truth be given 
in evidence? Scripture may become slander. A 
free press is the bulwark of liberty. Evil must be 
exposed, right upheld. Thus did he reason against 
a precedent of the common law as old as that law 
itself. With prophetic foresight he depicted the 
dangers of American institutions; not those of an 
overpowering monarchy, but of a bribed jury and a 
stufTed ballot-box. " No," said he, " I do not con- 
tend for this terrible liberty of the press ; but I do 
contend for the right to publish the truth with good 
motives for justifiable ends." 



Hamilton as a Lawyer. 183 

But, the other point, Shall the jury judge of the 
intent and the law? "Judges may be wedded to 
one idea;" said Hamilton, "a fluctuating body 
chosen from the people best expresses the sense of 
liberty." Here we see the author of the American 
Constitution pleading for the same right which 
Stephen Langton drew from King John at Runny- 
mede. Thus liberty's strongest exponent was estab- 
lished upon a basis of freedom. To-da}', turning the 
search-lights of criticism upon public men, that press 
bears witness to the patriotism and foresight of 
Alexander Hamilton. 

In the court-room Hamilton was thoughtful, clear, 
correct. His understanding was not crippled by the 
defense of wrong. His arguments were based upon 
principles rather than authorities. He sought not 
so much the lex as \.\\QJiis. His eloquence was that 
of justice and right ; he appealed to the judgment 
and the conscience. 

No man grasped the whole field of possibility as 
fully as he. He presented the cause of his adver- 
sary in the clearest light. Then, with the case ap- 
parently proved against him, he would tear to pieces 
the fabric he had made, point out the weak spots in 
his opponent's evidence, and step by step establish 
what he believed to be the truth. His analysis was 
exhaustive, conclusive. Little need was there to 
charge a jury when Hamilton had summed up on 
either side. With all this, he had a broad knowledge 
of the law. He applied Mansfield's opinions to 
American jurisprudence. He taught the profession 
the value of Emeregon and Valin. More, he was a 



./ 



i84 



Hamilton as a Lazvyer. 



law)'er whose genius brought as much joy to his 
heart as it did gold to his purse. Many a cause did 
he plead without hope of pay. Many another be- 
cause it was right. He was a man among lawyers, 
as well as a lawyer among men. The nation has not 
yet produced a greater. 

Alexander Hamilton sleeps in Trinity churchyard, 
in the heart of the great metropolis. Scores of 
lawyers may look from their windows upon his 
grave ; thousands more pass it by heedlessly each 
day. Yet, in these days of the skimming of books, 
when pleading rarely gets back of precedent to prin- 
ciple ; when law but not always justice prevails, — 
what a shrine is that grave ! Pause a moment, heed- 
less thousands! He who sleeps in this churchyard 
was a lawyer, but he was a man ; the cause of the 
widow and the orphan was his cause. And how 
laboriously did he strive, how deep did he delve into 
the hidden treasures of the right ! Great was his 
victory, and greatly did he deserve it. Pause, hast- 
ing thousands! Alexander Hamilton, the lawyer, 
sleeps here. 





ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THE CODE OF 
HONOR. 

BY LEROY F. OSTRANDER, '94. 

[FTER years of faithful service, Alex- 
ander Hamilton had retired from 
public life. He had helped to estab- 
lish a nation ; personal interests now 
demanded his attention. 

Hamilton's private life was simple 
and beautiful. His loving nature 
found its greatest happiness in his family. The 
tender husband, the thoughtful father, the kind, 
considerate master, he was the idol of his household. 
An intense lover of nature, he planned for a quiet 
life in the retirement of his country home. As a 
lawyer he was fast adding fame and fortune to the 
greatness of his public renown. Earnest, brilliant, 
equitable, he won the respect and admiration of his 
colleagues, the love and gratitude of his clients. A 
student and philosopher, he aspired to enrich the 
world with the products of his pen ; to leave a lasting 
memorial of his genius. 

But a cruel fate soon dispelled these hopeful 
visions. Amid the cares of private life Hamilton 

1S5 



1 86 Alexander Hamilton and 

never forgot the public weal. Political affairs con- 
tinually felt his influence. Those were troublous 
and trying times, when men stood ready to answ er 
for their opinions with their lives. Between Hamilton 
and Aaron Burr a mutual antipathy had long existed. 
Burr was crafty and ambitious, ready to sacrifice the 
people's welfare for personal advancement. Hamil- 
ton had been a barrier, fatal to his hopes. His 
opposition was intense ; his denunciations bold and 
scathing. Defeated and spurned in national politics, 
Burr's last hope rested in the governorship of New 
York. The glory of success was enhanced b)' a 
fascinating vision of an independent, Northern re- 
public. The keen mind of Hamilton perceived the 
danger; his voice was raised in warning. Through 
his influence Burr was foiled. The disappointed 
politician burned for revenge ; the duel should be his 
instrument. His rival's utterances easily furnished 
a pretext, and communications were exchanged. 
Hamilton could not make the renunciation de- 
manded. The challenge was accepted. 

Hamilton condemned the code of honor on moral 
grounds. His sensitive nature revolted from so 
brutal a system. No man had more cause to hate 
the duel than he; for his own family had felt its 
curse. He had seen his eldest son, a youth of re- 
markable promise, slain before an opponent's pistol. 
The risk of his encounter with Burr was appalling. 
Death meant a desolated home. The possible 
anguish of his wife and children racked him ; their 
uncertain fate distressed him. His creditors and 
clients would suffer, — a thought almost unbearable 



The Code of Honor. 187 

to a man of his integrity. Blasted all the hopes for 
professional greatness ! Vain the dreams for a 
happy, secluded life. 

Why then did Hamilton accept this challenge? 
Personal ill will did not impel him. Burr was his 
political enemy, but the recipient of his private 
favor. Did he fear the charge of cowardice ? No. 
The courage of the man who had carried the re- 
doubt at Yorktown could not be questioned. 
Hamilton would have met and outlived any such 
imputation. 

But the eye of this political seer had pierced the 
mysteries of the future. He saw portentous omens 
overhanging the Republic. Hamilton believed that 
centralization was essential for American prosperit}'. 
But he feared the dissolution of the Union. Civil 
discord was rife; sectional feeling bitter and intense. 
Hamilton also foresaw the impending struggle with 
England. The American Revolution had been suc- 
cessful ; America's independence was yet to be 
attained. His country might again demand his 
service. Public opinion was swayed by the despot- 
ism of the code of honor; to disregard it would be 
to impair his influence. Patriotism arose above 
personal considerations. Hamilton made the sacri- 
fice and entrusted the result to God. 

A beautiful July morning witnessed the consum- 
mation of the duel. Clear and bright the sunlight 
was reflected from the peaceful waters of the Hud- 
son. The glories of a summer's morn rested on the 
woods and hills. But over the Heights of Weehaw- 
ken the spirit of Death hovered. Silently the prin- 



1 88 Alexander Hamilton and 

cipals took their positions. The signal was given ! 
A flash ! and the bullet of Burr had found its mark. 
His honor was satisfied; his revenge accomplished. 
A few hours of suffering, and all that was mortal of 
Alexander Hamilton lay cold in death. 

Thus died, in the prime of life and in the midst 
of his usefulness, one of the greatest statesmen 
America has produced. Would we censure his con- 
duct ? Would we call him inconsiderate and fool- 
ish ? We then must be able to rise above the power 
of public opinion. In death, even as in life, Hamil- 
ton was mindful of his country's welfare. We may 
consider his forebodings erroneous and pessimistic, 
but we can not doubt the integrity of his purpose. 
Posterity has judged with charity the closing scene 
of his life. The bullet that killed the man could 
not destroy his fame. What a contrast was the 
fate of his opponent ! Burr was ever unprincipled, 
and by his crafty methods had already lost the 
popular esteem. But the death of Hamilton fixed 
eternal obloquy on his name. Driven from his 
home, he turned traitor to his country, and ever 
afterward bore the brand of a social outcast. This 
one, vindictive deed has been the most potent factor 
in the perpetuation of his worthless memory. 

But Hamilton died not in vain. Duelling was a 
relic of Teutonic savagery. Time was when it had 
its mission. But it had lost the sanction of thought- 
ful men. Justice depended not on mere brawn" and 
skill. Mind was superior to brute strength. Phi- 
lanthropists realized and taught these truths. The 
pulpit denounced the code of honor ; the law forbade 



The Code of Honor. 189 

its practice. All in vain. The people had not 
reached this stage of feeling. But when they saw a 
man like Hamilton smitten before his time, their 
country robbed of a life of priceless value, a nation 
and a world mourning the loss of a universal genius, 
then they realized the fearful possibilities of the 
duel. They saw the barbarity and hideousness of 
its practices; they revolted at its needless sacrifices. 
They learned " not rashly to sport with life, not 
lightly to wring the widow's heart with sorrow and 
fill the orphan's eye with tears." The pistol shot of 
Aaron Burr had sounded the death knell of the duel 
in America. 

Hamilton was ever a patriot. His early life was 
devoted unstintingly to his country. His services as 
soldier, statesman, and financier, stand preeminent 
in American history. His untimely death removed 
a mighty intellect and ended a brilliant career. But 
the influence of this death on society was most 
salutary. It led to the blotting out of a system in- 
compatible with advanced civilization. From that 
time a higher spirit of chivalry controlled the lives 
of men. Alexander Hamilton, great in life, great 
even in death, has justly merited the gratitude and 
veneration of his countrymen, in whose service he 
sacrificed so much. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S THEORY OF THE 
UNITED STATES SENATE. 




BY JOHN B. SEYMOUR, '95. 

;N the Convention of 1787, Colonel 
Hamilton offered this as his plan for 
a United States Senate, " The Senate 
to consist of persons elected to serve 
durin"' "ood behavior; their election 
to be made by electors, chosen for 
that purpose by the people. In order 
to do this, the States to be divided into election dis- 
tricts. On death, removal, or resignation of any 
Senator, his place to be filled out of the district from 
which he came. This Senate to have sole power of 
declaring war; power of advising and approving all 
treaties ; power of approving or rejecting all appoint- 
ments of ofificers, except the heads or chiefs of the 
departments of finance, war, and foreign affairs." 

Such a Senate, stamped with the idiosyncrasies of 
its author, has four distinctive points, — its source; 
its tenure; the scope of its power; and the purpose 
it subserves in the system of government. 

Its source was not to be the people. Hamilton 
could not trust them. Looking back into his college 

190 



The United States Senate. 191 

days, he pictured again in memory the fierce throng 
at Kings. Should mobs govern the new nation? 
Far better tliat men of judgment and sagacity, men 
of influence, chosen by the people, should select our 
rulers. Such electors would not be moved by party 
interests ; would not be controlled by political bosses. 
Senators whom they selected would be of spotless 
character and proved patriotism. 

Hamilton was a man from a large State. State 
rights found no sympathizer in him. Five years' 
service in the army, where he had seen little Rhode 
Island fighting side by side with his own New York, 
was not the training for sectionalism. His year in 
the Continental Congress had thoroughly sickened 
him of the jealousy, ingratitude, dishonesty, and dis- 
cord of State legislation. Consequently his plan of 
election districts, great divisions of the country 
regardless of State distinctions. 

The Senators were to serve during good behavior. 
Hamilton was not an absolute believer in the Amer- 
ican experiment. His should be a Senate of chosen 
statesmen, an aristocracy of intellect, not of hered- 
ity ; of brain, not of birth. 

The scope of the Senatorial power was to be three- 
fold. First, exclusive right of declaring war, a 
power of vital importance. How fitting that it be 
reserved for the most permanent body of the nation, 
in which judgment tempers will ; where passion is 
controlled by prudence. Added to this is the power 
of advising and approving all treaties, functions 
requiring the finest talent and the keenest statesman- 
ship. The third power is that of rejection or 



192 HcDuiltoiis Theory of 

approval of appointments, with the exception of 
heads of departments of finance, war, and foreign 
affairs ; a great check which the Senate should hold 
over the executive, a sure preventive of party favor- 
itism, and an absolute guarantee that wisdom should 
govern our country and ability make our laws. 

And, lastly, the purpose it subserves in the system 
of government. Hamilton meant it to be the sober 
second thought of the nation. A Senate marked in 
personality, influential in executive power, and well- 
versed by experience in the forms of legislation. 
Like the elders of Israel it should consist of gray- 
headed seers, whose every action should command, 
and whose words should " gather thunder as they 
ran." 

The Senate actually adopted by the Convention 
is the result of compromise. In it equality of State 
representation is the prominent feature. Hamilton's 
plan contained no such idea of equality. It was not 
to have State representation at all. What need of 
States in the central government of free America? 

The present Senator is chosen, not by electors, as 
the " Plan " suggests, but by the State legislatures. 
Instead of life service, his time is for but six years, 
and even that seemed over long to the jealous revo- 
lutionists of the Convention. The age of the Sena- 
tor must be thirty-five, and he must have been nine 
years a citizen. 

But the powers of the Senate are in substance 
those proposed by Hamilton, — two-thirds concur- 
rence on treaties, and advice and consent to the 
appointment of ambassadors and public officers. 



The United States Senate. 193 

We read in the " Plan," "The Senators are liable 
to impeachment." The Constitution states, " The 
Senate shall have sole power to try impeachments." 
This has been called the greatest power ever granted 
to any republican deliberative assembly. To use 
the words of Hamilton himself, "This makes a 
check on the encroachments of the executive by 
the most dignified and independent of republican 
bodies." 

Let us for a moment picture this ideal Senate. 
Behold an august body of grave and reverend 
seniors, " good men," as their great founder terms 
them. No foul atmosphere of rotten politics per- 
vades this sacred precinct. No politician who has 
"sold the truth to serve the hour" sits in that 
chair yonder. Everywhere are statesmen, wise, 
moderate, resolute. Men who 

"... care not to be great 
But as they save or serve the state, 
Who let their great example stand 
Colossal, seen of every land." 

Beautiful picture of untrammeled legislation. 
Wonderful body, far superior to the old Roman 
Senate, where the haughty patrician eyed with dis- 
approval and defiance the insolent ever-encroaching 
new party. No blue blood and traditionary rank 
exist here. All are free and equal. Far above a 
modern English House of Lords, where worthless 
generations of sons sit through their father's titles, 
and where a decayed aristocracy plays at mock 
government. 

Hamilton's plan was presented because it was his 



194 The United States Senate. 

firm conviction that the people were not fully capa- 
ble of governing themselves. His Senate was to be 
a body chosen by trusted people ; a body represent- 
ing no small, but a large division of the country; a 
body serving on good behavior and with certain 
definite governmental functions, for to his mind this 
body, and only such a body, was capable of secur- 
ing the safety and prosperity of the new Common- 
wealth. 

The history of the existent Senate in some respects 
justified Hamilton's conception. Its power has 
been in the experience and ripened judgment of 
those who have been again and again returned. 
Thinking and patriotic citizens have mourned when 
some whirligig of politics has displaced an able and 
experienced Senator. Hamilton's plan would have 
removed Senators from menace of political intrigue. 

It is possible that election of Senators from dis- 
tricts regardless of State lines might have so hin- 
dered the growth of State rights as a supreme 
allegiance that they would never have disturbed 
our national tranquility. Is it altogether certain 
that, amid the conflict of " isms," and the perpetual 
outcry of factions, a body of life Senators might not 
furnish a most valuable conservative factor in our 
government ? 

It is unjust to balance the untried against that 
whose faults and weakness experience has shown, 
but Hamilton's theory of the United States Senate 
is worthy of his political wisdom ; and our diverg- 
ence from it may prove a serious fault in our repre- 
sentative system. 



A PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS BY HAMILTON 
ALUMNL 

'31. General John Cochrane. The American Civil War. Mem- 
ories of Incidents Connected with the Origin and Culmination 
of the Rebellion ; including Speech made in 1861. First book 
advocating the arming of slaves. New York, Rogers & 
Sherwood, 1879. 

'34. Bela Hubbard, LL.D. Climate of Detroit and the Lake 
Region. Detroit, 1874. 

Memorials of a Half -Century, with illustrations. New 

York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1888. 

'36. Daniel Huntington, LL.D. Memorial Address on Asher 
B. Durand. New York, Century Club, 1887. 

Some Accotint of the Early History of the National Academy 

of Design. New York, Academy of Design, 1890. 

'45. Hon. Benjamin F. Adams. The Best Method of Conducting 
Granges. Madison, 1875. 

'45. Charles T. Porter. A Treatise on the Steam-Engine Indi- 
cator and the Development and Application of Force in the 
Steam Engine. London, Longmans, 1875. 

Mechanics and Faith. A Study of Spiritual Truth in 

Nature. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1888. 

'46. DwiGHT H. Olmstead. The Protestant Faith ; or, Salvation 
by Belief . New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1874. 
Papers on Land Transfer, viz. : 

Transfer of Title to Real Estate, with a Synopsis of the 

Ne-cv Zealand Act. Read before the West Side Association. 
New York, 1881. 

195 



1 96 List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 

'46. DwiGHT H. Olmstead. Land Transfei- Reform. Read be- 
fore the N. V. Slate Bar Association. 1882. 

Report to the Legislature as one of the Commissioners of Land 

Transfer, 7vith draft of Bill for Block Indexing in New 
York. 1885. 

Supplemental Report to Legislature. 1886. 

Remarks before the yudiciary Committee of the Senate. 

1886. 

Land Transfer Reform, or the Free Transfer of Land. 

Scientific Registration and Ittdexing. 1886. 

The Block Indexing Act (notv in operation in Ne'v York and 

Brooklyn), and the Act for Short Forms of Deeds and Mort- 
gages. i8go. 

Land Transfer Reform, with an explanation of the Block 

Indexing Act. Read before the American Bar Association. 



Objections to the Torrens System. New York, The Coun- 
sellor, March, 1892. 

'47. Rev. Moses E. Dunham, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D. ILere and 
Hereafter. Utica, N. Y., W. T. Smith & Co., 1888. 

The Philosophy of Prayer. Lb., 1892. 

John Hope. Utica, J. E. N. Backus, 1888. 

Professor Moreton s Fxperience. Utica, Press, 1890. 

Stuissvale. lb., 1893. 

A Unique Vacation. lb., 1894. 

'48. Charles B. Curtis. Rembrandt's Etchings. Fifty of the 
most notable etchings of Rembrandt, reproduced by the photo- 
gravure process ; with biography of Rembrandt, and descrip- 
tive and historical notes to each picture. New York, Dodd, 
Mead & Co., 1888. 

Velasquez and Murillo. A descriptive and historical cata- 
logue of the works of Don Diego Velasquez de Silva and 
Bartolom^ Esteban Murillo ; comprising a classified list of 
their paintings, with descriptions ; their histoiy from the 
earliest known dates, names of the present owners, sales in 
which they have appeared, and engravings after them ; also a 



List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 197 

bibliography and a complete index. With original etchings. 
London, Sampson Low, and New York, J. W. Benton, 1883. 

Professor Edward Orton, LL.D. (Author, in part.) Reports 
of Ohio Geological Survey, viz. : Report of Progress, i86g ; 
1870. Geology of Ohio. Vol. /, 1S72 ; Vol. II, 1874 ; 
Vol. Ill, 1878. Columbus, Nevins & Myers. 

— (Chief Author.) Geology of Ohio, Economic. Vol. V,i884; 
Vol. VI, 1888 ; Economic and General, Vol. VII, i8gj. 
Columbus, Brand & Co. 

— Petroleum and Natural Gas. Columbus, Smythe, 1887. 

— The Trenton Limestone. U. S. Geological Survey, StJi An- 
nual Report, Part II. Washington, Government Printing 
Office, 1887. 

— Occurroice of Asphalt Rock. Kentucky Geological Sui'vey. 
Frankfort, Johnson, i88g. 

— Ohio. In Encyclopixdia Britannica, Ninth Edition. 

— The Relation of the State to the Public Health. Columbus, 
Spahr & Glenn. 

— The Stored Potuer of the IVorld. Columbus, 1893. 



'49. Ira F. Hart, M.D. History of Elmira, N. Y. Elmira, 

Wheeler & Watts, 1868. 
'50. Hon. Elliott Anthony, LL.D. A Digest of Illinois Reports. 

Philadelphia, 1854. 

The Law Pertaining to the Consolidation of Railroads. 

Chicago, 1865. 

A Treatise on the Laiv of Self-Defense ; Trial by Jury in 

Criminal Cases ; and Neiv Trials in Criminal Cases. 
Chicago, 1887. 

The Story of the Empire State. Chicago, Legal News Co., 

1891. 

Sanitation and Navigation. Part I. The History of Legis- 
lation in Illinois in regard to Canals, etc. Part II. The 
Story of the Erie Canal lb., 1891. 

The Constitutional History of Illinois. lb., 1891. 

The Lakes and Rivers of Central Neju York. lb., 1893. 

Reform in Practice and Procedure. 1894. 



198 List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 

'50. Hon. Elliott Anthony, LL.D. Lata of Ai-rest in Civil 
Cast's. 



Renievibcr the Pioneers. 

Sketch of the Early Bench and Bar of Chicago. 

The Government of Russia, audits jfudicial System. 

'50. Hon. Simeon B. Chase. Good Templar's Digest. Phila- 
delphia, Garrigues Bros., 1858. 14th Edition. Edinburgh, 
Scotland, Morton. 

Treatise on Parliamentary Law. 73., 1858. 

Manual or Exposition of the Good Templars. Milwaukee, 

B. F. Parker, 1864. 15th Edition. 

Brief History of the Good Templars. St. Louis, B. H. 

Mills, 1864. 

Good of the Order. Philadelphia, Garrigues Bros., 1870. 

Edinburgh, Morton. 

'50. John W. Sykes, M.D. Essays on Chronic Diseases. Pitts- 
burg, Stevenson & Foster, 1875. 

'51. Hon. Henry M. Knox. Seven Annual and Biennial Reports 
as Public Examiner and Superintendent of Banks of the 
State of Minnesota. St. Paul, By the State, 1878-1888. 

A Unifortn System of Ptiblic Accounting, with Forms and 

Explanations for County Auditors and Treasurers. lb., 
1880. 

Care of the Public Funds and Treatment of Cash on Hand. 

lb., 1885. 

Banking Laws of Minnesota. Forms and Instructions for 

the Organization of State Banks. lb.., 1886. 

The Office of Public Examiner ; A Minnesota Notion. Ad- 
dress before the American Bankers' Association. Pittsburg, 
By the Association, 1887. 

The Ptiblic Exavtiner Act. Annotated and published by 

resolution of the American Bankers' Association for distribu- 
tion to the Governors and Legislatures of the States of the 
Union. New York, 1887. 

'51, Charles Dudley Warner, L.H.D. 

(For list of Mr. Warner's works, see end of Bibliography.) 



List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 199 

'52. Daniel Goodwin. The Lives and Services of James Pitts 
and his Sons in the American Revolution. Chicago, Culver, 
Page & Co., 1882. 

The Dearborns ; a Discourse commemorative of the eightieth 

anniversary of the occupation of Fort Dearborn and the first 
settlement of Chicago. Chicago, Fergus Co., 1884. 

The Lord's Table; Shall it be banished fro)n a loyal Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church. Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1885. 

Ln Memory of Edwin C ha nning Lamed. Lb., 1886. 

Colonial Pictures ivilh Brush and Pen. Lb., 1886. 

hi Memory of Robert C. Winthrop. Chicago, 1894. 

Ln Memory of Arthur Brooks. Lb., i8g6. 

'53. Rev. William B. Dada. hnmortality of the Soul. 1867. 
'53. Hqn. William W. Howe. The Pasha Papers. Nev^^ York, 
Scribner & Co., 1858. 

The Late Lamented. New Orleans, Clark & Hofeline, 1876. 

Memoir of Judge F. X. Martin. New Orleans, Gresham, 

1881. 

Municipal History of New Orleans. Baltimore, J. H. U. 

Press, 1888. 

The Police Power of the State. New Orleans, Thomason, 

1891. 

The LListorical Relation of the Roman Law to the Law of 

England. American Bar Association, 1895. 

'53. Rev. Wilbur F. Paddock., D.D. Eyes and Ears Abroad. 

Philadelphia, Wm. B. Evans & Co., 1873. 
LLalf a Century of Church Life. Philadelphia, McCalla 

& Stavely, 1873. 

Twentieth Anniversary Discourses. Philadelphia, Frede- 
rick Scofield, 1879. 

Children's Prayer and Praise Book. Philadelphia, Martin 

Rice, 1883. 

'53. Rev. Edward P. Powell. Our LLeredity from God. New 
York. D. Appleton & Co., 1886. 5th Edition, 1895. Gott 
it?i Menschen. Autorisierte deutsche Ausgabe. Berlin, Bib- 
liographischen Bureaus, 1894. 



200 List of Books by Hamilton Ahimni. 

'53. Rev. Edward P. Powell. Liberty and Life. Chicago, 

Chas. H. Kerr, i88g. 
• The Philosophy of History. New York, D. Appleton & 

Co., 1893. 

Religion as a Factor in Huntan Eiioliition. Chicago, 

Chas. W. Kerr, 1895. 

(Editorial \\x\\.&x^ for the St. Louis Globe Democrat. 1871- 

74- 
(Literary and Editorial Contributor.) lb. 1874-95. 

N^unierous Articles in Arena, Neiu England Magazine, 

Forum, Education, Lndependent, etc. 
'54. Charles S. Bundy. The Justices Manual of Judicial and 

Eleme7itary Law. With appropriate Forms. Washington, 

By the Compiler, 1880. 

Bundy' s United States Commissaries ; containing Forms, 

Instructions atid the Statute Law concerning the Commis- 
saries of United Circuit Courts. Washington, 2d Edition, 
1883. 

Landlord and Tenant. Law of House-Renting and Room- 
Renting, with Chapter on Hotels and Boarding-Houses in the 
District of Columbia. .Washington, Lowdermilk & Co., 
1888. 

'56. Hon. Franklin H. Head. Shakespeare's Insomtiia and the 
Causes Thereof. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887. 

David Sluing. Biographical Sketch. Chicago, Stone & 

Kimball, 1894. 

The Heart of Chicago. Boston, N'eia Eng. Mag., July, 

1892. 

The World's P'air Balance Sheet. New York, Forum, 

July, 1893. 

The Fair's Results to the City of Chicago. lb., December, 

1893. 

Need of an International Monetary Agreetnent. //'., June, 

1894. 

'56. Rev. Professor Oren Root, D.D., L.H.D. (Editor.) The 
Columbian Speaker. Boston, Lee & Shepard, 1875. 

(Editor.) The Franklin Speaker. New York, Sheldon & 

Co., 1882. 



List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 201 

'57. Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. The Crisis of Missions ; 
or. The Voiee out of the Cloud. i6mo. New York, Baker & 
Taylor, 1886. 

Evangelistic Work in Principle mid Practice. i6mo. New 

York, Baker & Taylor, 1887. 

The Divitie Enterprise of Missions. A series of Lectures 

delivered at Neiv Brunswick, N. y. , before the Theological 
Seminary of the Reformed Church in America, upon the 
'' Graves" Eoundatinn in iSg/. i6mo. New York, Baker & 
Taylor, 1891. 

The Heart of the Gospel. Twelve Sermons, delivered at the 

Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, Eng. i6mo. New York, 
Baker & Taylor, 1892. 

The Divine Art of Preachittg. i6mo. New York, Baker 

& Taylor, 1893. 

Love in Wrath ; or. The Perfection of God's yudgfnents. 

An address before the Mildmay Conference, London, Eng. 
New York, Baker & Taylor, 1893. 

■ The One Gospel ; or. The Combination of the Narratives of 

the Four Evangelists in One Complete Record. 1 2mo. New 
York, Baker & Taylor, 1893. 

Stumbling Stones Removed from the Word of God. iSmo. 

New York, Baker & Taylor, 1894. 

The New Acts of the Apostles ; or. The Marvels of Modern 

Missions. A series of lectures upon the foundation of the 
'' Duff Missionary Lectureship," delivered in Scotland, in 
February and March, i8gj, with a chromo-lithographic map 
of the world, and chart, which sho7v the prevailing religions 
of the world, their comparative areas, and the progress of 
evangelization. With an Lntroduction by Rev. Andrew 

Thomson, D.D., F.R.S.E., Edinburgh, Scotland. Crown, 
8vo. New York, Baker & Taylor, 1895. 
" A notable contribution to missionary literature." — Chicago A dvance. 
" It is a unique and invaluable volume."— /?^t/. N. H. Belden, D.D., Sec. Inter- 
national Missionary Union. 

'58. Rev. Edward P. Adams. Stoj-y Sermons from "■' Les Miser- 
ables." Dunkirk, N. Y., 1895. 



202 List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 

'58. Hon. A. JUDD NoRTHRUr, LL.D. Camps and Tramps in the 
Adirondacks, and Grayling Fishing in Northern Michigan : 
A Record of Summer Vacations in the Wilderness. New 
York, Baker, Pratt & Co., 18S0. 

' Scon set Cottage Life: A Sumvier on N'antiicket Island. 

lb., i88r. 

'58. AusBURN Towner. Seen Through the Mist. A Poem, de- 
livered before the New York State Associated Press. Elmira, 
Advertiser Association, 1876. 

Chedayne of Kotono. A Romance of the Early Days of the 

Republic. New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1877. 

Seven Days in a Pullman Car, New York, Rose, 1879. 

The History of Che)?iung County, A^. Y. Syracuse, Mason 

& Co., 1891. 

Hal f-a-Million Acres. A Story of the Pioneer Days of the 

Empire State. New York, Peter Fenelon Collier, 1892. 

The House Terrible, A Semi-Romance. lb., 1893. 

'62. Charles W. Cole, Ph.D. Public School Reports. Published 
annually from i8yS to iSg^, Albany, Argus Co. 

(Editor.) Choice Readings. With Notes and Biographies. 

New York, Sheldon & Co., 1892. 

'63. Rev. Myron Adams, D.D. The Continuous Creation. An 
applicatio7i of the Evolutionary Philosophy to the Christian 
Religion. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889. 

The Creation of the Bible. lb,, 1892. 

'63. Rev. Charles Van Norden, D.D., LL.D. The Outermost 
Rim and Beyond, New York, Randolph & Co., 1882. 

The Psychic Factor, an Outline of Psychology, New York, 

D. Appleton & Co., 1895. 

What Came of a Sigh. American Magazine, May, 1887. 

The Human Litnitations of the Christ, as described or sug- 
gested in the Gospels. Andover Review, July, 188S. 

'64. Rev. William Hutton, D.D. Wanderings in Europe. 
Philadelphia, Grant, Faires & Rodgers, 1878. 

'65. Rev. James A. Ferguson, D.D. History of the Presbyterian 
Church, Hanover, N. y. Hanover, 1876. 



List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 203 

'65. Hon. LeRoy Parker and Robert H. Worthington. The 

Lazv of Public Health ami Safety. Albany, Matthew 

Bender, 1892. 
'65. Hamilton B. Tompkins. Biographical Record of the Class 

of J 86s of Hamilton College. Printed for the Class. New 

York, 1877. 

Hamilton College, Class of iSb^. Minutes of Class Meeting 

held at Clinton, July i, jS8_5. With brief supplemental 
record. New York, 1S85. 

Bibliotheca Jeffersoniana. A List of books ivritten by, or 

relating to, Thomas Jefferson. New York, G. P. Putnam's 
Sons, 1887. 

Burr Bibliography. A List of books relating to Aaron 

Burr. Brooklyn, Historical Printing Club, 1892. 

'66 Rev. Professor Abel G. HoPLiNS, Ph.D. Biographical Sketch 
of the Hon. 0. S. Williams. Utica, 1881. 

The Agricola and Germania of Tacittis. New York, Leach, 

Shewell, & Sanborn, 1894. 

Ln Memory of Theodore W. Dtvight, LL.D. 1893. 

'66. John N. Tilden, M.D. A Commercial Geography for Acad- 
emies, High Schools, and Business Colleges. New York, 
Leach, Shewell & Sanborn, 1893 ; Revised Edition, 1895. 

A Grammar School Geography, Descriptive, Lndustrial, and 

Commercial, tvith Maps and Illustrations. lb., 1894. 

'67. Rev. Amory H. Bradford, D.D. Spirit and Life. Thoughts 
for To-day. New York, Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1888. 

Old Wine: New Bottles. Some Elemental Doctrines in 

Modern Form. lb,, 1892. 

The Pilgrim in Old England. A Review of the History, 

Present Conditiott, and Outlook of the Independent (Congre- 
gational) Churches in England. lb., 1893. 

The Question of Unity. Many Voices concerning the Uni- 
fication of Christendom. New York, The Christian Litera- 
ture Company, 1894. 

The Sistine Madonna. A Christmas Meditation. New 

York, Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1894. 



2o4 List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 

'67. Rev. Amory H. Bradford, D.D. Heredity and Christian 
Froblevis. New York, Macmillan & Co., 1895. 

'67. Rev. David R. Breed, D.D. More Light. American Tract 
Society, 1876. 

Plain Progressive Talks on the IVay of Salvation. lb., 

1877. 

The Locust Scourge in Minnesota. lb,, 1878. 

The Money Question. Philadelphia, Presbyterian Board of 

Publication, 1882. 

Abraham : The Typical Life of Faith. Chicago, F. H. 

Revell Co., 1886. 

Plowboy to Prophet. Chicago, McCormick Seminary, 1887. 

The Miracle of the Christ. lb., 1891. 

Heresy and Heresy. Chicago, Young Men's Era Co., 1891. 

Mind at its Best. Chicago, Central West Co., 1 891. 

The Life and Services of the Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, 

D.D. Chicago, McCormick Seminary, 1892. 

A Histo7y of the Preparation of the World for Christ. 

Chicago, F. H. Revell Co., Second Edition, 1893. 

'68. Hon. John D. Henderson. The Village Charter. H. P. 

Wittinstine, 1876. Third Edition. 
'69. Professor Francis M. Burdick, LL.D. Cases on Torts. 

New York, Banks & Bros., 1891. Second Edition, 1895. 

The Study of Law as a Part of a General Education. 

Albany, N. Y., 1888. 

Oiir Experience under a Low Tariff. Ithaca, N. Y., 1889. 

(Associate Editor.) yohtison's Universal Cyclopedia. De- 
partment of Civil, Constitutional, a7td Municipal Latv. New 
York, A. J. Johnson & Co., 1894-5. 

'69. John C. Fowler. Supplement to the Seventh Edition of the 
Revised Statutes of the State of Neiv York. Syracuse, 1888. 

'6g. Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, LL.D. Governtnent Revenue, 
especially the American System. An argument against the 
fallacies of Free Trade. i2mo. Boston, Houghton, Mif- 
flin & Co., 1882. 



List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 205 

'69. Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, LL.D. New York. The planting 

and the growth of the Empire State. 2vols. i6mo. Ib.,i9>%'j. 

Mr. Roberts has put into less than 800 pages all the truly significant events 

which have gone to the making up of New York history from 1524 to the present 

day. — New i'ork yournal 0/ Commerce. 

'69. Selden H. Talcott, A.M., M.D., Ph.D. Prognosis in 
Insanity. Reprint from New York Homeopathic Medical 
Titnes, 1878. iSmo, pp. 29. 

Medical Notes in the Treatment of Mental and Nervous Dis- 
eases. Reprint from the New York Medical Times, 1879. 
iSmo, pp. 8. 

General Paresis. Reprint from New York Medical Times, 

1880. 8vo, pp. 28. 

The Insane Diathesis. Middletown, N. Y., Slauson & 

Boyd, 1881. 8vo, pp. 21. 

Two Addresses. Published by order of the N'ew York State 

Homeopathic Medical Society, 1882. 8vo, pp. 32. 

Sleep tvithout Narcotics, 1883. 8vo, pp. 28. 

Application of New Remedies in the Treatment of Mental 

and Nervous Diseases. Reprint from New York Aledical 

Times, 1884. 8vo, pp. 13. 

Homeopathic Treat?nent of the Insane. Reprint from the 

Annual Report of the Middletown State Homeopathic Hos- 
pital for i88s. 8vo, pp. 28. 

Hahnemann and His htfluence upon Modern Medicine. 

An Address delivered in Boston, April 12, iSSj, before a 
Convention to celebrate the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of 
the Establishment of Homeopathy in the State of Massa- 
chusetts. 1887. 8vo, pp. 12. 

Traumatic Insanities and Traumatic Recoveries. Reprint 

from the American yournal of Insanity. Utica, N. Y., 

1888. 

An Essay on the Revision of the Laws relating to the Com- 
mitment, Care, and Discharge of the Insane. 1888. Pp.25, 

Annual Address fas PresidentJ before the American Institute 

of Homeopathy, ^sd Session, Minnetonka, Minn. Reprint 
from Transactions of the Institute. i88g. 8vo, pp. 18. 



2o6 List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 

'69. Selden H. Talcott, A.M., M.D., Ph.D. The Hospital Idea. 
Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital. 1890. 8vo, pp. 25. 

Dietetics in the 7 reatmoit and Cure of Insanity. 1891. 

Pp. 10. 

Prison Methods for State Hospitals. Reprint from Ameri- 
can Journal of Homeopathy. 1893. Pp. 10. 

Atmual Reports (as Chief of Staff), Homeopathic Hospital, 

Ward's Island, N. V. City. 1875-76. 

Annual Reports fas Supe7-intendetitJ of the State Homeo- 
pathic Hospital at Middletown, N. Y. 1877-1895. 

Modern Phases of Melancholia. 1894. 

Degeneration and Regeneration. An Essay read before the 

Ajnerican Institute of Homeopathy at N^eivport, R. I., June, 
iSgj. Philadelphia, Hahnemannian Monthly, August, 1895. 

'70. Albert Leffingwell, M.D. Vivisection. New York, Lovell 
& Co., 1889. 

Rambles through Japan -ivithout a Guide. London, Sampson 

Low & Co., 1 89 1. 

Illegitimacy, and the Influence of Seasons upon Conduct ; 

Two Studies in Demography. London and New York. 
" Social Science Series." S. Sonnenschein & Co., and Scrib- 
ner & Co., 1892. 

Vivisection in America. London and New York, Macmillan 

& Co., 1894. 

'70. Henry C. Maine. The Burgoyne Campaign. Troy, Whig 
Co., 1877. 

Prize Essay on the Red light, i88j-j. Rochester, Warner 

Observatory. 

Does the Sun Influence the Weather ? New York, Frank 

Leslie's Publishing Co., 1889. 

'72. Professor H. C. G. Brandt, Ph.D. Rules for Writing and 
Printing German in Roman Letters, Baltimore, 1878. 

Lessings ^^ A^athan der Weise." Second Edition. New 

York, Holt & Co., 1895. 

Grammar of the German Language, for High Schools and 

Colleges. Seventh Edition. Boston, Allyn & Bacon, 1894. 



List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 207 

72. Professor H. C. G. Brandt, Ph.D. A First Book in German, 
together zviih Lodeman s Exercises. Boston, Allyn & Bacon, 
1888. 

German Reader for Beginners ; with Azotes and Vocabulary. 

Fourth Edition. Boston, Allyn & Bacon, 1894. 

(Editor with Professor Day.) Scientific German; an Intro- 
ductory Reader with Notes and Vocabulary. New York, 
Holt & Co., 1896. 

'72. Professor Brainard G. Smith. A Tragedy of High Explo- 
sives. New York, Cassell & Co., 1889. 

Reading and Speaking. Familiar Talks to Young Men who 

ivould Speak well in Public. Boston, D. C. Heath & Co., 
1891. New Edition, 1895. 

(Editor with Professor Root.) The Hamilton Declamation 

Quarterly. Syracuse, N. Y., C. W. Bardeen, 1895. 

'72. President Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, D.D., LL.D. 
The Alleluia. New York, Biglow & Main, 1880. 

The Church Praise Book. //^., 1881. 

Christian Chorals. lb., i88r. 

Church Song. lb., 1889. 

Choral Song. lb., 1891. 

The Song of Miriam, and other Hym7is. Chicago, 1888. 

Dies Irae. The Great Dirge of Thomas de Celano. The 

Latin text, a strict prose translation, and three new versions 
in rhyme. Chicago, F. PI. Revell Co., 1892. 

Inaugural as Ninth President of Hamilton College. Utica, 

By the Trustees, 1893. 

Lattermath. Poems, original and translated. Utica, W. T. 

Smith & Co., 1895, 

The Letter of yames the yust, in eight forms polyglot. Ar- 
ranged for classes. Boston, Ginn & Co., 1895. 

Hamilton, Lincoln, and other Addresses. Utica, W. T. 

Smith & Co., 1896. 

'73. Hon. Oliver E. Branch. College Jourttalism. Albany, 1874. 

The Hamilton Speaker. New York, Dick & Fitzgerald, 

1878. 



2o8 List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 

'73. Hon. Oliver E. Branch. The National Series of Speakers. 
I. Primary Speaker. II. Junior Speaker. III. Advanced 
Speaker. New York, Baker & Taylor, 1887. 
" One great merit of the books is the fact that the pieces are nearly all new." — 
Boston Transcript. 

" They are fresh, short, pointed, simple, well arranged, and within the compre- 
hension and speaking power of young people." — yournal 0/ Education. 

'12,. Professor Thomas H. Norton, Ph.D., Sc.D. The Battle 
with Fire, or the Contributions of Chemistry to the Methods 
of Preventing and Extinguishing Conflagration. Address 
before Section of Chemistry, A.A.A.S., Brooklyn Meeting. 
Salem, 1894. 

'74. Rev. George W. Knox, D.D. A Brief System of Theology. 
Tokio. 1884. 

Outlines of Homiletics. /(^. , 1884. 

Christ the Son of God. 16., iSSS- 

The Basis of Ethics. /^., 1885. 

The Japanese System of Ethics. lb., 1886. 

The Mystery of Life. lb., iSgo. 

A Japanese Philosopher. lb., 1892. 

'75. Rev. Frank S. Child. The History of the First Congrega- 
tional Church, Greenwich, Ct, Utica, Curtiss & Childs, 1S80. 

The Boyhood of H. W. Beecher. Utica, Childs & Son, 

1 886. 

The Prime Ancient Society. Standard Press, 1891. 

The Sixth Sanctuary. Utica, Childs & Son, 1893. 

Be Strong to Hope. i6mo. New York, Baker & Taylor, 

18S8. 

South Dakota. People, Resources, Statehood. New York, 

Baker & Taylor, 1888. 

The Gospel of Good Cheer. New York, Baker & Taylor, 



Children's Catechism. New York, Baker & Taylor, 1890. 

The Friendship of Jesus. i6mo. New York, Baker & 

Taylor, 1894. 

" ' A beautiful little volume.' It will appeal strongly to all readers, on the pro- 
found and inspiring love which Jesus exercised toward young and old." — Utica 
Herald. 

" Strong and fervent words. The Great Friend comes near in the words that 
breathe His truth." — Pres. Stryker, 0/ Hamilton College. 



List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 209 

'75. Rev. Frank S. Child. An Old Neia England Town. New 

York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. 
'75. Hon. William H. DkWitt. Montana State Supreme- Court 

Reports. Opinions in Vols. 9, /o, //, 12, /j>, /^, 75, 16. 

Helena, By the State, 1889-95. 

'75. Principal DwiGHT HOLBROOK, Ph.D. Reading for Our Boys. 
New York, E. L. Kellogg & Co., 1885. 

(Editor.) The Talisman ; by Sir Walter Scott. Boston, 

Ginn & Co., 1886. 

'76. Rev. William H. Allbright, D.D. Sermons. Pilgrim 
Series, Vol. i. Boston, Blair & Brown, 1891. 

'76. Rev. Charles G. Matteson. The Doctrines, Fundamental 
and Essential, in the Formation and Complete Development 
of Christian Character. 1887. 

'77. Rev. David Allen Reed. (Translator.) Protestant Foreign 
Missions. By Theodore Christlieb, D.D., Ph.D. Fourth 
German Edition. Boston, Congregational Publishing So- 
ciety, 1880. 

Outlines of the Fundamental Doctrines of the Bible. Chi- 
cago, F. H. Reveli Co., 1894. 

'79. Rev. Gilbert Reid. The New Treaty between China and 
the United States ( 18S8). Tientsin, China, Printing Com- 
pany, 1889. 

Chinese Law on the Otvnership of Church Property in 

China. Shanghai, Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890. 

The Historic Episcopate as a Basis of Church Union in 

China. lb., 1891. 

7'he Duty of Christian Missions to the Upper Classes in 

China. lb., 1892. 

The Sources of the Anti-Foreign Disturbances in China. 

Shanghai, North China Herald Office, 1892. 

Peeps into China. London, Religious Tract Society, and 

Chicago, F. H. Reveli Co., 1893. 

Chinese Exclusion, its Bearing on American Interests in 

China. Rochester, N. Y., Union & Advertiser Office, 
1894. 



2IO List of Books by Hamilton Alumni. 

'88. Professor Hiram Albert Vance, Ph.D. Der Spiitangel- 
siichsische " Sertno in Festis Sanctae Mariae Virginis" viit 
Riicksicht auf das Altenglische Sprac/ilick Dargestellt. 
Darmstadt, G. Otto, 1894. 

'89. Samuel G. Tracy, M.D. Electricity in Medicine. New 
York, 1896. 

'90. Professor Melvin G. Dodge. (Editor.) Alexander Hamilton. 
Thirty-one Head-Prize Orations delivered at Hamilton Col- 
lege from 1S64 to i8gj. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
1896. 

(Editor with D. W. E. Burke, '93.) The Clark-Prize 

Book. The Successful Clark-Prize Orations delivered at 
Hamilton College from /Sjj to iSgj. Clinton, 1894. 

General Charles W. Darling, (A.M., '92). Anthropophagy, His- 
toric and Prehistoric. Utica, N. Y., 1886. 

Memorial to my Honored Kindred. lb., 1888. 

Antoine L'Espenard, the French Huguenot, of New 

Rochelle. lb., 1893. 

New A ins ter dam. New Orange, A^ezv York. lb., 1893. 

Versions and Editions of the Bible, lb., 1894. 

'95. Burton M. Balch. College Rhymes. Utica, 1895. 




CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 



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serious, much deeper in thought, than the New York novel is wont to be . . . 
and keeps Mr. Warner well in the front rank of philosophic students of the ten- 
dencies of our civilization. — Springfield Republican. 

A LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD. Post 8vo, Half 
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It is a study of American life of to-day possessed with shrewd insight.— G. W. 

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AS WE GO. Social Essays. With Portrait and Illustrations. 
i6mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.00. 
Words cannot convey the refined humor which is Mr. Warner's rarest gift. — 
Boston Daily Traveller. 

AS WE WERE SAYING. Social Essays. With Portrait and 
Illustrations. i6mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.00. 
Who but Mr. Warner could dangle these trifles so gracefully ? — Critic.^ N. Y. 

OUR ITALY. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, Uncut 
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Mr. Warner's charming style of writing needs no commendation. — Observer., 
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